Flexible Numerical Platform for Electrical Impedance Tomography

A. Fouchard [1], S. Bonnet [1], L. Hervé [1], O. David [2],
[1] University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, MINATEC Campus, Grenoble, France
[2] Univesité Joseph Fourier, Grenoble Institute of Neuroscience, La Tronche, France
Published in 2015

An implementation of the Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) forward problem in a generalist FEM package is presented. It fulfils the complete electrode model boundary conditions, combining current injection with contact impedance on a single boundary. Our implementation is benchmarked with the EIDORS FEM library. The Comsol Multiphysics environment proves consistent and provides a flexible numerical platform. It can be leveraged to explore more sophisticated models without necessitating numerous developments (higher order shape functions, complex domain computations, multiphysics imaging). It appears as a complementary tool alongside custom codes. The proposed forward solver is generic, and can be adapted to other electromagnetic studies, to compute the potential distribution, e.g. in transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), electroencephalography (EEG), and deep brain stimulation (DBS).