A new velocity estimation method using spectral identification of noise

In all measurement techniques one seeks accuracy and precision. In ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry, those qualities strongly depend on signal to noise ratio of the Doppler signal and on the performance of the velocity estimator. The most widely used estimation method in ultrasonic coherent Doppler velocimetry is the pulse pair method. Its success is due to the computation efficiency of the algorithm combined to an unbiased estimator. Unfortunately, for a wide range of experimental fluid flows, the pulse pair estimation is less efficient, especially for clear water or concentrated mud where the signal to noise ratio can be very low, or for highly turbulent flows where the Doppler signal has a broad spectrum. Our approach is based on the treatment of the Doppler spectral information. It uses a simple parametric identification inspired by theoretical models and experimental observations. It acts through noise subtraction and subsequent cutting. Thus, we have developed a fast velocity estimation algorithm superior to the pulse pair one in terms of accuracy. The robustness of the method was evaluated by adding different levels of white Gaussian noise to an experimental Doppler signal. The results demonstrate an increase of noise immunity up to one decade compared to the pulse pair method. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.