Finite-Element Gaussian Belief Propagation Solver for Multi-Physics Modeling of Radiofrequency Tumor Ablation

A new finite-element Gaussian belief propagation (FGaBP) algorithm for multi-physics applications is presented in this paper. The FGaBP method is first modified for solving the heat-transfer problem and then verified against an analytical solution. Combined with a Gauss-Seidel algorithm, FGaBP is used to solve the coupled electrical-thermal problem that emerges in radiofrequency ablation of hepatic tumors while the extent of the ablated zone is computed for a simplified model. The multi-physics FGaBP algorithm preserves the parallel scalability of FGaBP as in previous uni-physics works.