Effect of number of pulse repetition and noise on velocity profile measurement in ultrasonic pulse doppler method

Ultrasonic pulse Doppler method has been widely used in many engineering field referred to as UVP (ultrasonic velocity profiler). Analysis algorithm in the UVP, number of pulse repetition (Npulse), noise and reflector conditions, etc. may affect on the measurement accuracy. The Npulse is related to the temporal resolution, and must be set as low as possible in order to improve the temporal resolution. However, it is known that accuracy of instantaneous velocity becomes worse with decreasing of the Npulse. In this study, effect of analysis algorithm in the UVP on velocity data was investigated with changing of the Npulse and SNR by simulation and experiments. As a result, it is shown that there is an appropriate N pulse in each algorithm depending on the SNR. An algorithm which decides the Doppler frequency from maximum value in the power spectrum, FFT-max, was relatively hard to be affected by noise. Difference of velocity standard deviation was small between lower and higher noise conditions when FFT-max with Npulse over the appropriate value was used for the calculation. Hence, FFT-max was the best analysis algorithm for measuring flow field compared with the autocorrelation. ©2013 The Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers.