Local Velocity Measurements Research Articles

Local Pulse Wave Velocity Estimation in the Carotids Using Dynamic MR Sequences

The current study presents a new protocol for local pulse wave velocity (PWV) measurement using dynamic MR sequences, which have a high temporal resolution (TR < 6 ms). MR images were obtained at two positions along the common carotid artery, separated by a distance of 5 cm. In each phase of a MR series, carotid region was automatically extracted and then its area distension waveform could be obtained. Sixteen volunteers with no symptoms of cardiovascular diseases were studied. For local PWV estimation, three delay estimation principles were tested and produced the following values: intersecting tangents method (M1): 4.72 ± 1.40 m/s, second derivative method (M2): 4.94 ± 1.68 m/s and cross-correlation method (M3): 5.03 ± 1.17 m/s. The cross-correlation method showed a relative high reliability as its least standard deviation.

Transformation of local bubble rise velocity measurements to global results: Shown by a Monte Carlo simulation of a fluidized bed

To design bubbling fluidized bed reactors and study chemical reactions, the knowledge of hydrodynamic properties, such as bubble size, rise velocity and hold-up is of importance. Local measurements of those properties are valuable, but do not automatically reflect the properties of the full bed. In the manuscript a method based on Bayes’ theorem is developed, which helps to transform local bubble rise velocity measurements into a global result. The transformation method was tested by means of a Monte Carlo simulation.

Effects of parameters on the accuracy and precision of ultrasound-based local pulse wave velocity measurement: a simulation study.

Quantification of arterial stiffness, such as pulse wave velocity (PWV), is increasingly used in the risk assessment of cardiovascular disease. Pulse wave imaging (PWI) is an emerging ultrasound-based technique to noninvasively measure the local PWV instead of the global PWV, as in conventional methods. In PWI, several key parameters, including the frame rate of ultrasound imaging, motion estimation rate (MER), number of scan lines, image width, PWV value, and sonographic signal-to-noise ratio (SNRs), play an important but still unclear role in the accuracy and precision of PWV measurement. In this study, computer simulations were performed to investigate the fundamental effects of these parameters on the PWV measurement. The pulse waveform was estimated by speckle tracking on ultrasound RF signals acquired at a frame rate of 2083 Hz from a location on the common carotid artery of a healthy subject. By applying different time delays on the estimated waveform based on specific PWI parameters, the pulse waveforms at others locations were simulated. Ultrasound RF signals of the artery during the pulse wave propagation were generated from a 2-D convolutional image formation model. The PWI technique was applied to estimate the PWV at different values of frame rate, MER, number of scan lines, image width, PWV, and SNRs. The performance of the PWV estimation was evaluated by measuring the relative error, coefficient of variation (CV) and coefficient of determination (R(2)). The results showed that PWVs could be correctly measured when the frame rate was higher than a certain value (i.e., minimum frame rate), below which the estimated error increased rapidly. The minimum frame rate required for PWV estimation was found to increase with the value of PWV. An optimal MER was found (i.e., about 200 Hz) and allowed better performance of PWV measurement. The CV of PWV estimation decreased and R(2) increased with number of scan lines and image width, indicating that the performance of the PWV estimation could be improved with a larger number of scan lines and image width. For a given sufficiently high frame rate, a higher PWV value was found to deteriorate the PWV estimation, as indicated by an increasing CV and decreasing R(2). The simulation results were in good agreement with the theoretical analysis. Finally, high-quality PWV estimation could be obtained as long as the SNRs was higher than about 30 dB. The quantitative effects of the key parameters obtained from this study might provide important guidelines for parameter optimization in ultrasound-based local PWV measurement in vivo.

Studying local liquid velocity in liquid–solid packed bed using the newly developed X-ray DIR technique

Combination of X-ray Digital Industrial Radiography (DIR) and Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) techniques for local liquid velocity measurement (VLL) has been newly developed and successfully applied for trickle bed reactor (TBR). The technique was validated against newly developed fiber optical probe technique. This work attempts to highlight the applicability of this newly developed technique on a liquid–solid packed bed reactor. In this work, liquid was represented by water and solids were represented by EPS beads. The EPS beads were chosen because of its low density property. Three superficial liquid velocities (VSL) were applied to the system. The experiment was replicated four times. The digital industrial radiography (DIR) consists of a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) digital detector and X-ray source. Results of this work suggest that the technique has been successfully applied and comparable with previous work that has been done in the literature. It also suggests that there will be a maximum measurable interstitial liquid velocity when it travel inside the packed bed. The measured VLL can have a maximum range that is between 4 and 4.7 times that of its VSL. For VSL=0.42±±2%, the VLL-Max is in between 1.7cm/s and 1.9cm/s, VSL=0.84±±2%, the VLL-Max is in between 3.6cm/s and 4.0cm/s, and for VSL=1.11±±2%, the VLL-Max is in between 4.3cm/s and 4.8cm/s.

Development of the charge exchange recombination spectroscopy and the beam emission spectroscopy on the EAST tokamak.

Charge eXchange Recombination Spectroscopy (CXRS) and Beam Emission Spectroscopy (BES) diagnostics based on a heating neutral beam have recently been installed on EAST to provide local measurements of ion temperature, velocity, and density. The system design features common light collection optics for CXRS and BES, background channels for the toroidal views, multi-chord viewing sightlines, and high throughput lens-based spectrometers with good signal to noise ratio for high time resolution measurements. Additionally, two spectrometers each has a tunable grating to observe any wavelength of interest are used for the CXRS and one utilizes a fixed-wavelength grating to achieve higher diffraction efficiency for the BES system. A real-time wavelength correction is implemented to achieve a high-accuracy wavelength calibration. Alignment and calibration are performed. Initial performance test results are presented.

Magnetic plethysmograph transducers for local blood pulse wave velocity measurement.

We present the design of magnetic plethysmograph (MPG) transducers for detection of blood pulse waveform and evaluation of local pulse wave velocity (PWV), for potential use in cuffless blood pressure (BP) monitoring. The sensors utilize a Hall effect magnetic field sensor to capture the blood pulse waveform. A strap based design is performed to enable reliable capture of large number of cardiac cycles with relative ease. The ability of the transducer to consistently detect the blood pulse is verified by in-vivo trials on few volunteers. A duality of such transducers is utilized to capture the local PWV at the carotid artery. The pulse transit time (PTT) between the two detected pulse waveforms, measured along a small section of the carotid artery, was evaluated using automated algorithms to ensure consistency of measurements. The correlation between the measured values of local PWV and BP was also investigated. The developed transducers provide a reliable, easy modality for detecting pulse waveform on superficial arteries. Such transducers, used for measurement of local PWV, could potentially be utilized for cuffless, continuous evaluation of BP at various superficial arterial sites.

Effects of key parameters on the accuracy and precision of local pulse wave velocity measurement by ultrasound imaging.

Quantification of arterial stiffness, such as pulse wave velocity (PWV), is increasingly used in the risk assessment of cardiovascular disease. Pulse wave imaging (PWI) is an emerging ultrasound-based technique to noninvasively measure the local PWV, instead of the global PWV as in conventional methods. In PWI, several key parameters, including the frame rate, number of scan lines, image width and PWV, play an important but still unclear role in the accuracy and precision of PWV measurement. In this study, computer simulations were performed to investigate the fundamental effects of these parameters on the PWV estimation. By applying different time delays on the pre-obtained pulse waveform based on specific PWI parameters, the pulse wave propagation along the artery was simulated and the ultrasound RF signals were generated from a convolutional image formation model. The PWI technique was applied to calculate the PWV at different values of key parameters. The performance is evaluated by measuring the bias, standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of determination (R(2)) of the estimated PWVs. The results show that PWVs can be correctly measured when the frame rate is higher than a certain value, below which the estimated PWVs become inaccurate. The SD decreases while R(2) increases with number of scan lines and image width, indicating a better performance of the PWV estimation with a larger number of scan lines and image width. A higher value of PWV is found to deteriorate the PWV estimation. The quantitative effects of the key parameters obtained from this study may provide important guidelines for optimization of PWI parameters in vivo.

Local Particle Mean Velocity Measurement in Pneumatic Conveying Pipelines Using Electrostatic Sensor Arrays

In this paper, a measurement system for the local mean velocity of pneumatically conveyed particles is proposed and developed. It mainly consists of electrostatic sensor arrays, signal conditioning circuits, and a digital signal processor (DSP)-based data acquisition and processing unit. Electrostatic sensor arrays are used to detect the charge on particles in its sensing zone and further make the local particle mean velocity measurement in conjunction with cross-correlation method. The sampling frequency is determined from theoretical analysis of the bandwidth of electrostatic signal and accuracy of correlation velocity calculation. Experiments are carried out on a belt conveyor and a gravity-fed particle rig to determine the optimized sampling number of the electrostatic signal through analyzing the measurement error of the transit time. The results showed that the more sampling numbers, the higher stability of measurement results. The repeatability of the measurement system is less than ±2.2% and the linearity is better than ±4.9% over the velocity range of 5.50–21.98 m/s. Experiments are also performed on a high-pressure dense-phase pneumatic conveying system of pulverized coal, indicating that the measurement system is capable of achieving local mean velocity measurement of pneumatically conveyed particles with the relative standard deviation less than 5.5%.

X-ray digital industrial radiography (DIR) for local liquid velocity (V(LL)) measurement in trickle bed reactors (TBRs): validation of the technique.

Local liquid velocity measurements in Trickle Bed Reactors (TBRs) are one of the essential components in its hydrodynamic studies. These measurements are used to effectively determine a reactor's operating condition. This study was conducted to validate a newly developed technique that combines Digital Industrial Radiography (DIR) with Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV) to measure the Local Liquid Velocity (V(LL)) inside TBRs. Three millimeter-sized Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) beads were used as packing material. Three validation procedures were designed to test the newly developed technique. All procedures and statistical approaches provided strong evidence that the technique can be used to measure the V(LL) within TBRs.

Multiple states in highly turbulent Taylor-Couette flow.

The ubiquity of turbulent flows in nature and technology makes it of utmost importance to fundamentally understand turbulence. Kolmogorov's 1941 paradigm suggests that for strongly turbulent flows with many degrees of freedom and large fluctuations, there would only be one turbulent state as the large fluctuations would explore the entire higher dimensional phase space. Here we report the first conclusive evidence of multiple turbulent states for large Reynolds number, Re = O(10(6)) (Taylor number Ta = O(10(12))) Taylor-Couette flow in the regime of ultimate turbulence, by probing the phase space spanned by the rotation rates of the inner and outer cylinder. The manifestation of multiple turbulent states is exemplified by providing combined global torque- and local-velocity measurements. This result verifies the notion that bifurcations can occur in high-dimensional flows (that is, very large Re) and questions Kolmogorov's paradigm.

Spatial filtering characteristics of electrostatic sensor matrix for local velocity measurement of pneumatically conveyed particles

The accuracy of local particle mean velocity measurement with spatial filtering method based on an electrostatic sensor matrix (ESM) is closely related to its sensitivity and spatial filtering characteristics. In this paper, the three-dimensional electrostatic field generated by a point charge in the sensing zone of the ESM is solved by using a finite element method to obtain the spatial sensitivity distributions of the ESM. Further a dimensionless calculation model for the sensitivity of the ESM is suggested based on a Cosine function. The numerical results demonstrate that the spatial sensitivity has a periodic distribution along the axial direction and its spatial periodicity is determined by the axial spacing between two adjacent electrodes. The sensitivity over the central cross-section is localized. The spatial filtering characteristics of the ESM are also investigated and verified by experiments on a gravity-fed rig. These results provide a basis for the optimized design of the ESM.

Experimental and numerical investigation of hydrodynamics in raceway reactors used for algaculture

Abstract Raceways are nowadays the most used large-scale reactors for microalgae culture. This paper focuses on the hydrodynamics in such a reactor, and emphasizes on the effects of the paddlewheel geometry (two impeller configurations are tested). The global hydrodynamics behavior of the raceway (flow velocity, mixing time) is characterized experimentally by the tracer pulse injection method, and local velocity measurements are acquired by Pulsed Ultrasonic Doppler Velocimetry. Finally, the flow is modeled by using the sliding-mesh CFD technique, a method overcoming many limitations of the simulation approaches used in the literature. CFD simulations successfully estimate the flow rate in the reactor and the power consumption of the paddlewheel. It is shown that the mixing efficiency in the raceway reactor is closely related to the low-frequency flow unsteadiness that arises from the periodic motion of the blades. Concerning local velocities, CFD and experimental data are in good agreement at some positions in the reactor, but a significant disagreement is observed at some other locations. Taking into account the wind presence in the simulations reduces the discrepancy between the experimental and numerical results, showing that, even with a moderate intensity, wind has an important effect on the hydrodynamics in the reactor.

Application of micro particle shadow velocimetry μPSV to two-phase flows in microchannels

Micro particle shadow velocimetry (μPSV) is performed in the present study for simultaneous velocity measurement and interface tracking in both liquid–liquid and gas–liquid two-phase flows through circular microchannels of 500μm diameter. The back-lit illumination using a non-coherent LED light source, combined with full refractive index matching of the liquid phases, the tube wall material and the channel exterior medium, allowed velocimetry to be done both within and around the liquid droplets, and even close to the interfaces and boundaries. Moreover, post-processing methods are proposed and implemented in order to resolve motion of isolated gas bubbles and immiscible liquid droplets in laminar flows quantitatively. In particular, simultaneous measurements of local instantaneous phase velocities and flow rates, liquid film dynamics and its thickness, shape and volume of the dispersed phase, and development length in front and at the back of the bubbles are obtained using one single sequence of gray scale shadowgraphy images. Such results are valuable for validation of corresponding numerical simulation codes. It is believed that this approach significantly reduces the size and cost of the experimental setup while increasing the accuracy and reliability of the measurements.

Local liquid velocity measurement in trickle bed reactors (TBRs) using the x-ray digital industrial radiography (DIR) technique

This work describes the development of a new technique to measure local liquid velocity (VLL) for multiphase flows in trickle bed reactors (TBRs) (gas–liquid–solid system). In the studied TBR, the liquid phase is represented by water, gas by air and 3 mm expanded polystyrene beads as the solid packing. Three different superficial liquid velocities (VSL) and a constant superficial gas velocity (VSG) were used in the packed bed with an internal diameter of 4.25 cm. While the liquid is moving into the packed bed, tracking particles of 106–125 μm diameter (16.45% difference) are injected. The movement of the tracking particles is monitored and digitally recorded by a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor detector. In this experiment, x-rays were used as the radiation source. Four replications were made with fresh packing. Comparable observations can be found from other published techniques (i.e. magnetic resonance imaging). Results from this study indicate that, at VSL = 0.13 cm s−1, the measured VLL can reach up to 51 times that of its VSL, while for VSL = 0.27 cm s−1, the measured VLL reached up to 35 times higher than the VSL and for VSL = 0.39 cm s−1, the VLL reached up to 39.8 times higher than its VSL. Through statistical analysis, the implementation of such a method is found to be reproducible throughout the experiments. The mean per cent difference in the measured VLL was 10% and 5% for lower implemented VSL of 0.13 and 0.27 cm s−1, respectively. At higher VSL (0.39 cm s−1), the particle tracer was greatly distributed and carried away by the high liquid flow rate. The variance or the range of the measured VLL does not vary for all replications in every VSL, which confirms the reproducibility of the experimental measurements, regardless of the VSL.

Experimental Investigation on the Effects of a Spacer Grid on Single- and Two-Phase Flows

Experiments are performed in a scaled 1x3 rod bundle adiabatic air-water test facility to investigate the effects of a spacer grid on singleand two-phase flows. A four-sensor conductivity probe is used to obtain detailed measurements of local time-averaged two-phase flow parameters, including the void fraction and interfacial area concentration, throughout the flow cross-section at four axial locations. The local two-phase flow data indicates that the spacer grid causes redistribution of the bubbles. In the transition from bubbly to slug flows, the spacer grid is found to promote bubble coalescence. In the slug to churn-turbulent transition, however, the grid breaks up the larger bubbles, causing an increase in the interfacial area concentration across the spacer grid. Additionally, local velocity measurements in single-phase liquid flow are performed with a laser Doppler anemometer to investigate the change in the turbulence structure across the grid. The axial turbulence intensity measurements show the influence of the spacer grid dimples, indicating an increased mixing effect from these structures.

Numerical simulation and experimental validation of a hypersonic flow for numerical modulation of re-entry phenomena prediction using adaptive mesh refinement

The subject of interest is the validation of a 3-D numerical computer model of a hypersonic fl ow around double cone geometry. The double cone geometry represents a generic space vehicle which enters the atmosphere at extremely high velocity. This leads to complex fl ow phenomena around the space vehicle. In this paper the fl ow-fi eld around the space vehicle is investigated. Experimental data is obtained for different double-cone geometries mounted inside a hypersonic wind-tunnel. During the experiments the Mach number is equal to 9. Three different geometries and four different operating conditions are the subject of this study. Because of the short test period of less than 200 ms a measurement of temperatures and local velocities is not possible during test. Therefore, the computational model is used. The numerical solver is based on the compressible Navier‐Stokes equations and implements an adaptive meshing tool. This solver is used for fl ow-fi eld simulations of re-entry phenomena. The cell refi nement tool adapts the local cell length to the density gradient. In this way, all shock-waves receive higher resolution than the remaining mesh and the solver shows good agreement with the experimental results while minimizing computational cost and time. For this purpose of this study a basic open source solver is used and modifi ed and solutions are validated on experimental data. The aim of this paper is to show a good agreement of experimental pressure measurements and numerical results and to estimate results of the temperature fi eld, the velocity fi eld and the local Mach number using the numerical model.

Timescales in creep and yielding of attractive gels

The stress-induced yielding scenario of colloidal gels is investigated under rough boundary conditions by means of rheometry coupled with local velocity measurements. Under an applied shear stress σ, the fluidization of gels made of attractive carbon black particles dispersed in a mineral oil is shown to involve a previously unreported shear rate response γ dot above(t) characterized by two well-defined and separated timescales τc and τf. First γ dot above decreases as a weak power law strongly reminiscent of the primary creep observed in numerous crystalline and amorphous solids, coined the "Andrade creep". We show that the bulk deformation remains homogeneous at the micron scale, which demonstrates that whether plastic events take place or whether any shear transformation zone exists, such phenomena occur at a smaller scale. As a key result of this paper, the duration τc of this creep regime decreases as a power law of the viscous stress, defined as the difference between the applied stress and the yield stress σc, i.e. τc ∼ (σ - σc)(-β), with β = 2-3 depending on the gel concentration. The end of this first regime is marked by a jump of the shear rate by several orders of magnitude, while the gel slowly slides as a solid block experiencing strong wall slip at both walls, despite rough boundary conditions. Finally, a second sudden increase of the shear rate is concomitant with the full fluidization of the material which ends up being homogeneously sheared. The corresponding fluidization time τf robustly follows an exponential decay with the applied shear stress, i.e. τf = τ0 exp(-σ/σ0), as already reported for smooth boundary conditions. Varying the gel concentration C in a systematic fashion shows that the parameter σ0 and the yield stress σc exhibit similar power-law dependences with C. Finally, we highlight a few features that are common to attractive colloidal gels and to solid materials by discussing our results in the framework of theoretical approaches of solid rupture (kinetic, fiber bundle, and transient network models).

Measurements of liquid-phase turbulence in gas–liquid two-phase flows using particle image velocimetry

Liquid-phase turbulence measurements were performed in an air–water two-phase flow loop with a circular test section of 50 mm inner diameter using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) system. An optical phase separation method-–planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) technique—which uses fluorescent particles and an optical filtration technique, was employed to separate the signals of the fluorescent seeding particles from those due to bubbles and other noises. An image pre-processing scheme was applied to the raw PIV images to remove the noise residuals that are not removed by the PLIF technique. In addition, four-sensor conductivity probes were adopted to measure the radial distribution of the void fraction. Two benchmark tests were performed: the first was a comparison of the PIV measurement results with those of similar flow conditions using thermal anemometry from previous studies; the second quantitatively compared the superficial liquid velocities calculated from the local liquid velocity and void fraction measurements with the global liquid flow rate measurements. The differences of the superficial liquid velocity obtained from the two measurements were bounded within ±7% for single-phase flows and two-phase bubbly flows with the area-average void fraction up to 18%. Furthermore, a preliminary uncertainty analysis was conducted to investigate the accuracy of the two-phase PIV measurements. The systematic uncertainties due to the circular pipe curvature effects, bubble surface reflection effects and other potential uncertainty sources of the PIV measurements were discussed. The purpose of this work is to facilitate the development of a measurement technique (PIV-PLIF) combined with image pre-processing for the liquid-phase turbulence in gas–liquid two-phase flows of relatively high void fractions. The high-resolution data set can be used to more thoroughly understand two-phase flow behavior, develop liquid-phase turbulence models, and assess high-fidelity codes for multi-phase flows.

Local interfacial velocity measurement method using a four-sensor probe

This paper presents a theoretical foundation of the measurement methods for the instantaneous local interfacial velocity vector and the time-averaged local interfacial area concentration using a four-sensor probe for multi-dimensional two-phase flow measurements. The measurement method is derived based on a large bubble assumption that locally views the front and rear interfaces of an approaching bubble as two tangent planes. The newly-derived method provides an explicit expression for the instantaneous local interfacial velocity vector using a four-sensor probe. The derived method for the time-averaged local interfacial area concentration was found to be in the same form as that proposed by Kataoka et al. (1986) [1]. The derived method was applied to the practical two-phase flow measurements in a vertical pipe with an inner diameter of 200mm. The measured void fraction and interfacial velocity component in the axial direction were checked against the void fraction measurement using differential pressure gages and the superficial gas velocity measurement using gas flow meters, respectively. The measured interfacial velocity components in the radial and circumferential velocity components were found to be close to zero, which is in accordance with the fact that no stable flow of bubbles with certain horizontal velocity component exists in a vertical circular pipe. The measured interfacial area concentrations showed reasonable radial distributions in the pipe. The good agreements in the practical measurements suggest that the newly-derived method can reasonably measure interfacial velocity vector and interfacial area concentration in multi-dimensional two-phase flows.

Study of the flow mixing in a novel ARID raceway for algae production

A novel flow field for algae raceways has been proposed, which is fundamentally different from traditional paddlewheel-driven raceways. To reduce freezing and heat loss in the raceway during cold time, the water is drained to a deep storage canal. The ground bed of the new raceway has a low slope so that water, lifted by propeller pump, can flow down in laterally-laid serpentine channels, relying on gravitational force. The flow rate of water is controlled so that it can overflow the lateral channel walls and mix with the main flow in the next lower channel, which thus creates a better mixing. In order to optimize the design parameters of the new flow field, methods including flow visualization, local point velocity measurement, and CFD analysis were employed to investigate the flow mixing features. Different combinations of channel geometries and water velocities were evaluated. An optimized flow field design and details of flow mixing are presented. The study offers an innovative design for large scale algae growth raceways which is of significance to the algae and biofuel industry.