A real-time ultrasound time-domain correlation blood flowmeter. I. Theory and design

A real-time ultrasound time-domain correlation (UTDC) blood flowmeter has been developed. Real-time performance has been achieved through the implementation of a custom-designed high-speed residue-number system (RNS) hardware correlator. The flowmeter is interfaced to a commercial ultrasound imager and can produce one-dimensional velocity versus range graphs at a rate of three per second. It has been validated in a blood flow phantom under a variety of conditions along with in vivo measurements in the human carotid artery. The theory of the time-domain correlation technique, design and implementation of flowmeter hardware, and the important correlation parameters which affect the performance of the flowmeter are described.     

Volumetric blood flow via time-domain correlation: experimental verification

A novel ultrasonic volumetric flow measurement method using time-domain correlation of consecutive pairs of echoes has been developed. An ultrasonic data acquisition system determined the time shift between a pair of range gated echoes by searching for the time shift with the maximum correlation between the RF sampled waveforms. Experiments with a 5-MHz transducer indicate that the standard deviation of the estimate of steady fluid velocity through 6-mm-diameter tubes is less than 10% of the mean. Experimentally, Sephadex (G-50; 20-80 mum dia.) particles in water and fresh porcine blood have been used as ultrasound scattering fluids. Two-dimensional (2-D) flow velocity can be estimated by slowly sweeping the ultrasonic beam across the blood vessel phantom. Volumetric flow through the vessel is estimated by integrating the 2-D flow velocity field and then is compared to hydrodynamic flow measurements to assess the overall experimental accuracy of the time-domain method. Flow rates from 50-500 ml/min have been estimated with an accuracy better than 10% under the idealized characteristics used in this study, which include straight circular thin-walled tubes, laminar axially-symmetric steady flow, and no intervening tissues.     

A new time-domain narrowband velocity estimation technique for Doppler ultrasound flow imaging. II. Comparative performance assessment

For pt.I see ibid., vol.45, no.4, pp.939-54 (1998). The statistical performance of the new 2-D narrowband time-domain root-MUSIC blood velocity estimator described previously is evaluated using both simulated and flow phantom wideband (50% fractional bandwidth) ultrasonic data. Comparisons are made with the standard 1-D Kasai estimator and two other wideband strategies: the time domain correlator and the wideband point maximum likelihood estimator. A special case of the root-MUSIC, the "spatial" Kasai, is also considered. Simulation and flow phantom results indicate that the root-MUSIC blood velocity estimator displays a superior ability to reconstruct spatial blood velocity information under a wide range of operating conditions. The root-MUSIC mode velocity estimator can be extended to effectively remove the clutter component from the sample volume data. A bimodal velocity estimator is formed by processing the signal subspace spanned by the eigenvectors corresponding to the two largest eigenvalues of the Doppler correlation matrix. To test this scheme, in vivo common carotid flow complex Doppler data was obtained from a commercially available color flow imaging system. Velocity estimates were made using a reduced form of this data corresponding to higher frame rates. The extended root-MUSIC approach was found to produce superior results when compared to both 1- and 2-D Kasai-type estimators that used initialized clutter filters. The results obtained using simulated, flow phantom, and in vivo data suggest that increased sensitivity as well as effective clutter suppression can be achieved using the root-MUSIC technique, and this may be particularly important for wideband high frame rate imaging applications.     

应用GPU求解的实时子结构试验架构与性能验证

使用图形处理器(GPU)代替传统中央处理器(CPU)作为数值求解硬件,建立基于LABVIEW-MATLAB-GPU的实时子结构试验架构。以土-结相互作用系统为载体,通过数值仿真与试验对该架构的性能进行验证。试验与仿真结果表明,本文方法将实时子结构试验中数值子结构求解自由度提高到27000,提升了数值模型求解规模,拓展了实时子结构试验应用范围。     

A real-time structural parameter modification, approach for random vibration reduction: Part II. Experimental verification

Earthquake induced structural vibrations are stochastic in nature. In this paper, we present a novel structural control methodology for earthquake vibration reductions in two parts. Part I summarizes the efforts of the authors toward the development of real-time structural parameter modification (RSPM) control between 1993 and 1996. The operating control principle is minimization of conservative energy. The control hierarchy is realized by low-power-consuming devices (functional switches) with multiple ranked loops. The control method is to optimally adjust the physical parameters (mass, damping and stiffness) of the structure in real time. This method is therefore described as RSPM. It may be called variable passive control or parametric control. In Part I of this paper, the basic thesis of RSPM is presented, together with a discussion of the minimal principle of conservative energy of a vibrating system and the RSPM control hierarchy which contains four ranked loops. Variable passive control is capable of handling the stochastic nature of earthquake ground motion and it does not have certain major drawbacks of conventional active control methods. Part II of this paper describes experimental verifications of RSPM. It will be shown that RSPM can dissipate considerably more energy than existing passive energy dissipation devices. In addition, RSPM can reduce vibrations resulting from multidirectional excitations.     

Direct numerical inversion method for kinetic ellipsometric data. II. Implementation and experimental verification

A direct numerical inversion method is applied to the monitoring of thin-film growth. Several improvements of the method, including a correction for weakly absorbing materials, are presented. The method has been successfully applied to the inversion of the growth of constant-refractive-index layers andused for the process calibration of plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition of silicon oxynitrides. The validity of this calibration has been successfully tested on a linear index gradient and quintic matching layer between a polycarbonate substrate and a scratch-resistant coating.     

用于井下超声石油流量计的互相关方法

介绍井下超声波石油流量计的互相关处理方法以及实现方案。该方案采用倾斜式换能器布放方式,提高了井下超声石油流量计的测量灵敏度;采用数值化互相关求取时差的方法处理超声回波,对相关法与阈值法计算时差的可靠性与稳定性进行了比较,说明了相关法在时差计算方面相对于阈值法的优越性。同时介绍了相关法井下流量计的电路实现方法。结果表明：简化了超声流量计的电路设计,提高了系统的稳定性和测量精度,该方案对于井下流量计及相似的检测问题具有实际的参考价值。     

鼓式燃气换热系统的性能模拟及试验验证

燃气换热器在研发过程中需要进行大量的测试,并投入巨大的资源。为了节约成本,本文利用计算流体力学(CFD)的方法,在试验的基础上,针对一款包括鼓式燃气换热器(DGH)的换热系统建立数学模型。采用Eddy-Dissipation化学反应模型分析燃烧过程;采用k-ω模型分析流体湍流流动;采用Discrete Ordinates (DO)辐射换热模型分析辐射换热。最后以此为基础针对现有设备进行分析。结果表明:所建立的CFD模型可以很好地分析设备的运行,为产品设计和优化提供理论指导。     

A dynamic simulation model for transient absorption chiller performance. Part II: Numerical results and experimental verification

This paper is the second paper out of two which present the development of a dynamic model for single-effect LiBr/water absorption chillers. The first part describes the model in detail with respect to the heat and mass balances as well as the dynamic terms. This second part presents a more detailed investigation of the model performance, including performance analysis, sensitivity checks and a comparison to experimental data. General model functionality is demonstrated.A sensitivity analysis gives results which agree very well to fundamental expectations: it shows that an increase in both external and internal thermal mass results in a slower response to the step change but also in smaller heat flow oscillations during the transient period. Also, the thermal mass has been found to influence the heat flow transients more significantly if allocated internally. The time shift in the solution cycle has been found to influence both the time to reach steady-state and the transients and oscillations of the heat flow. A smaller time shift leads to significantly faster response.A comparison with experimental data shows that the dynamic agreement between experiment and simulation is very good with dynamic temperature deviations between 10 and 25 s. The total time to achieve a new steady-state in hot water temperature after a 10 K input temperature step amounts to approximately 15 min. Compared to this, the present dynamic deviations are in the magnitude of approximately 1–3%.     

A threshold fatigue crack closure model: Part II – experimental verification

Predictions from an analytical model that considers contributions and interactions between plasticity, roughness, and oxide induced crack closure are presented and compared with experimental data. The analytical model is shown to correctly predict the combined influences of crack roughness, oxide debris, and plasticity in the near‐threshold regime. Furthermore, analytical results indicate closure mechanisms interact in a non‐linear manner such that the total amount of closure is not the sum of closure contributions for each mechanism.     

A new time-domain narrowband velocity estimation technique for Doppler ultrasound flow imaging. I. Theory

A significant improvement in blood velocity estimation accuracy can be achieved by simultaneously processing both temporal and spatial information obtained from a sample volume. Use of the spatial information becomes especially important when the temporal resolution is limited. By using a two-dimensional sequence of spatially sampled Doppler signal "snapshots" an improved estimate of the Doppler correlation matrix can be formed. Processing Doppler data in this fashion addresses the range-velocity spread nature of the distributed red blood cell target, leading to a significant reduction in spectral speckle. Principal component spectral analysis of the "snapshot" correlation matrix is shown to lead to a new and robust Doppler mode frequency estimator. By processing only the dominant subspace of the Doppler correlation matrix, the Cramer-Rao bounds on the estimation error of target velocity is significantly reduced in comparison to traditional narrowband blood velocity estimation methods and achieves almost the same local accuracy as a wideband estimator. A time-domain solution is given for the velocity estimate using the root-MUSIC algorithm, which makes the new estimator attractive for real-time implementation.     

Holographic approach to radiation pattern measurement—II experimental verification

Results are presented of the experimental verification of four methods of inferring the phases of radiation patterns. All the methods are based on the concept of holography. The general theory is given in a companion paper. The significance of the methods for radio antenna practice is discussed. Applications to radio astronomy and to radar are suggested.     

A 3-D PW ultrasonic Doppler flowmeter: theory and experimental characterization

A complete 3-D ultrasonic pulsed Doppler system has been developed to measure quantitatively the velocity vector field of a fluid flow independently of the probe position. The probe consists of four 2.5 MHz piezocomposite ultrasonic transducers (one central transmitter and three receivers separated by 120°) to measure the velocity projections along three different directions. The Doppler shift of the three channels is calculated by analog phase and quadrature demodulation, then digitally processed to extract the mean velocity from the complex spectrum. The accuracy of the 3-D Doppler technique has been tested on a moving string phantom providing an error of about 4% for both amplitude and direction with an acquisition window of 100 ms     

Estimation of the angle between ultrasound beam and blood velocitythrough correlation functions

Correlation functions, calculated on the ultrasonic echoes scattered by blood, provide a rich harvest of information concerning the local speed, which has often been underestimated; in particular, blood flow measurement usually yields only the longitudinal component of the velocity, even if significant information about the speed direction can be extracted. In this paper it is shown how correlation functions, calculated on the dependency of both time and space displacements, allow us to evaluate the angle Θ between ultrasound beam and blood flow; when straight vessels are considered, this single parameter, combined with the longitudinal velocity profile, permits the complete hemodynamic characterization. The underlying theory is developed and preliminary experimental results are presented     

A new model of shear creep and its experimental verification

Mechanics of Time-Dependent Materials - Creep exerts a significant role in rock engineering safety. In engineering practice, it is helpful to develop a mathematical model representing rock creep...     

Casting solidification analysis and experimental verification

Finite element methods are being applied to a number of manufacturing processes such as rolling, forging, etc. This paper focuses on the effort to simulate turbine blade casting using commercially available software. Comparisons between experimental and analytical results are presented for simple geometries. A novel solution to the radiation boundary condition problem is discussed.     

A static and dynamic finite element shell analysis with experimental verification

A system of finite element shell analysis codes, called SABOR/DRASTIC, is used to analyse a complex two-layered shell of revolution under static and dynamic asymmetric loads. The dynamic analysis is compared with experimentally measured response. In this linear elastic analysis, emphasis is placed on the inherent flexibility of the finite element method in modelling the complex structural geometry of a given test specimen. Static studies, which involve variations in important shell parameters, and dynamic studies, which provide a successful correlation with experiment, are used to illustrate both the detail and the generality with which shell analyses may now be performed with confidence.     

A numerical and experimental verification of compliance functions for compact specimens

A two-dimensional finite element study of the compact specimen was performed in verification of its elastic compliance calibration functions. The results confirm Newman's boundary collocation solutions to within 2%. Empirical calibrations were also performed using alloys with well-known elastic moduli. The numerical and empirical agreement depends on the state of stress assumed in the model, with better aggrement for plane stress than for plane strain. Assuming plane stress and a Poisson's ratio of 0.3, the numerical solutions predict the true physical crack lengths within 4% or better for relative crack lengths, a/W, greater than 0.35. A 3-D finite element analysis of the speciment at a/W=0.5 verified that the 3-D compliances are best approximated by the 2-D compliances assuming plane stress rather than plane strain. The effect of plastic deformation on the unloading compliance was examined and was found to be less than 5%.