Parameter Identification in Radio‐Frequency Ablation

The prediction of the temperature profile for radio frequency ablation—a minimal form of tumor treatment—depends on a variety of material parameters (e.g. electric and thermal conductivities) as the coefficients of a system of partial differential equations. We discuss a basic model for the identification of such material parameters from measured temperature data, which bases on an objective function of tracking type which is constrained by the system of PDE. After the discretization of the PDE system with a standard finite element method we optimize the discrete system with an SQP solver. Numerical results are shown for a test scenario consisting of an artificial tumor and artificially generated target temperature profile. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)