Dual-grid mesh-based Monte Carlo algorithm for efficient photon transport simulations in complex three-dimensional media

The mesh-based Monte Carlo (MMC) method is an efficient algorithm to model light propagation inside tissues with complex boundaries, but choosing appropriate mesh density can be challenging. A fine mesh improves the spatial resolution of the output but requires more computation. We propose an improved MMC—dual-grid mesh-based Monte Carlo (DMMC)—to accelerate photon simulations using a coarsely tessellated tetrahedral mesh for ray-tracing computation and an independent voxelated grid for output data storage. The decoupling between ray-tracing and data storage grids allows us to simultaneously achieve faster simulations and improved output spatial accuracy. Furthermore, we developed an optimized ray-tracing technique to eliminate unnecessary ray–tetrahedron intersection tests in optically thick mesh elements. We validate the proposed algorithms using a complex heterogeneous domain and compare the solutions with those from MMC and voxel-based Monte Carlo. We found that DMMC with an unrefined constrained Delaunay tessellation of the boundary nodes yielded the highest speedup, ranging from [Formula: see text] to [Formula: see text] for various scattering settings, with nearly no loss in accuracy. In addition, the optimized ray-tracing technique offers excellent acceleration in high-scattering media, reducing the ray–tetrahedron test count by over 100-fold. Our DMMC software can be downloaded at http://mcx.space/mmc.