An MRI Simulator for Effects of Realistic Field Distributions and Pulse Sequences, Including SAR and Noise Correlation for Array Coils

Zhipeng Cao¹, Christopher T. Sica¹, Sukhoon Oh¹, John McGarrity¹, Timothy Horan¹, Bu Sik Park¹, Christopher M. Collins¹

We present a Bloch-based MRI simulator that considers desired sample, field distributions (B0, B1, E1, Gx, Gy, Gz) and pulse sequence for determining effects of field distributions on images (including noise correlation) and SAR. The software is provided with a few basic libraries for simulation of head and body in 8-element transceiver arrays at 3T and 7T and a GUI for designing and executing some simple pulse sequences, but structure of input files is intentionally simple so users can generate their own sample, field distributions, and sequence files. Many fundamental capabilities are demonstrated.