Abstract
Whole-field velocity measurement techniques based on ultrasound imaging (a.k.a. ‘ultrasound imaging velocimetry’ or ‘echo-PIV’) have received significant attention from the fluid mechanics community in the last decade, in particular because of their ability to obtain velocity fields in flows that elude characterisation by conventional optical methods. In this review, an overview is given of the history, typical components and challenges of these techniques. The basic principles of ultrasound image formation are summarised, as well as various techniques to estimate flow velocities; the emphasis is on correlation-based techniques. Examples are given for a wide range of applications, including in vivo cardiovascular flow measurements, the characterisation of sediment transport and the characterisation of complex non-Newtonian fluids. To conclude, future opportunities are identified. These encompass not just optimisation of the accuracy and dynamic range, but also extension to other application areas.
Highlights
The de facto standard non-invasive flow measurement techniques in research laboratories are based on optical principles (Tropea et al 2007), the most prominent examplesElectronic supplementary material The online version of this article contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.In the last decade, a series of non-optical imaging modalities have been introduced for flow measurement, most of them based on medical imaging techniques
Correlation-based techniques are known under various names in literature, including Ultrasound Imaging Velocimetry (UIV), speckle tracking velocimetry, and echo-particle image velocimetry (PIV)
Similar to optical PIV, which originated from speckle velocimetry in solid mechanics, UIV flow measurements where preceded by applications that estimated motion and deformation based on tracking of speckle patterns in tissue (Meunier and Bertrand 1995)
Summary
The de facto standard non-invasive flow measurement techniques in research laboratories are based on optical principles (Tropea et al 2007), the most prominent examples. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00348-016-2283-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. A series of non-optical imaging modalities have been introduced for flow measurement, most of them based on medical imaging techniques. Examples include Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Elkins and Alley 2007; Ooij et al 2011; Lakshmanan et al 2016), X-ray imaging (Fouras et al 2007; Heindel 2011) and ultrasound imaging (echography). This review focusses on a particular subset of ultrasound techniques, namely correlation-based velocity estimation using echography image data; this is distinct
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