Ultrasonic flowmeter

An ultrasonic velocity analyzing device comprising:

• a transducer including an array of elements;
• means for driving repeatedly part of said transducer elements in a prescribed interval thereby to repeatedly transmit an ultrasonic wave to a target;
• a parallel reception beam forming means for modifying a phase of signals from said transducer elements and for producing parallel reception signals derived from reception beams with different directivities;
• a sampling means for sampling each of said parallel reception signals and for storing said sampled signals;
• filtering means including a plurality of outputs, for performing moving target indication through a differential processing across signals having a certain time duration since transmission;
• a first one-dimension Fourier transform means, including a plurality of outputs, for performing Fourier transformation with respect to a direction of alignment of the reception beams;
• a second Fourier transform means including a plurality of outputs for performing Fourier transformation sequentially for the outputs of said first Fourier transform means with respect to a direction of repetitive transmission,
• function generation means including a plurality of outputs for generating a prescribed function of space frequency in correspondence to all measurable lateral velocities and axial velocities;
• and
• a two-dimensional correlation means for evaluating a two-dimensional correlation function between the outputs of said second Fourier transform means and the outputs of said function generation means,
• wherein the axial velocity and the lateral velocity are evaluated from the position of a peak value of the output distribution of said two-dimensional correlation means.

An ultrasonic velocity analyzing device comprising:

• means for repeatedly transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a target;
• a transducer including an array of transducer elements for receiving ultrasonic waves reflected from said target;
• a sampling means for sampling signals from said transducer elements;
• a Fourier transformer means including a plurality of output for performing Fourier transformation on the signals, which are provided from said transducer elements to be sampled, with respect to a direction of repetitive transmission;
• and
• means for deriving a target velocity by analyzing the outputs of said Fourier transformer means on a multi-dimensional plane having a first axis indicating locations of the outputs of said Fourier transformer means and a second axis indicating locations of said transducer elements.

An ultrasonic velocity analyzing device comprising:

• a transducer including an array of elements;
• means for driving repeatedly part of said transducer elements in a prescribed in interval thereby to repeatedly transmit an ultrasonic wave to a target;
• a parallel reception beam forming means for phase adjusting signals from said transducer elements and for producing parallel reception signals derived from reception beams with different directivities;
• a sampling means for sampling each of said parallel reception signals and for storing said sampled signals;
• filtering means for performing moving target indication through a differential processing across signals having a certain time duration since transmission;
• a first one-dimension Fourier transform means, including a plurality of outputs, for performing Fourier transformation with respect to a direction of the reception beam alignment;
• and
• a second one-dimensional Fourier transform means, including a plurality of outputs, which treats outputs of said first one-dimension Fourier transform means as two-dimension signals of time series corresponding to the transmission of the ultrasonic wave and treats, with respect to a plurality of straight lines coinciding at the origin of a coordinate with respective angles, signals values on each of the straight lines as a one-dimension sequence of numbers to perform the Fourier transformation,
• wherein lateral velocity and axial velocity of a moving object in said target are obtained from a two-dimensional distribution of the output of said second one-dimension Fourier transform means.

An ultrasonic velocity analyzing device comprising:

• a transducer including an array of elements;
• means for driving repeatedly part of said transducer elements in a prescribed interval thereby to repeatedly transmit an ultrasonic wave to a target;
• a parallel reception beam forming means for modifying phrases of signals from said transducer elements and for producing parallel reception signals derived from reception beams with different directivities;
• a sampling means for sampling each of said parallel reception signals and for storing said sampled signals;
• filtering means including a plurality of outputs, for performing moving target indication through a differential processing across signals having a certain time duration since transmission;
• a first one-dimension Fourier transform means, including a plurality of outputs, for performing Fourier transformation with respect to a direction of alignment of the reception beams;
• a second one-dimension Fourier transform means, including a plurality of outputs, which treats the outputs of said first one-dimension Fourier transform means as two-dimension signals of time series corresponding to the transmission of the ultrasonic wave and treats, with respect to a plurality of straight lines coinciding at the origin of a coordinate with respective angles, signal values on each of the straight lines as a one-dimensional sequence of numbers to perform the Fourier transformation;
• and
• a coordinate transform means, including a plurality of outputs, which transforms the outputs of said second one-dimension Fourier transform means to a lateral velocity and an axial velocity of a moving object,
• wherein the lateral velocity and the axial velocity of a moving object in said target are obtained.

An ultrasonic velocity analyzing device comprising:

• means for repetitive transmission of ultrasonic waves;
• a receiving array transducer elements for receiving reflection signals of said ultrasonic waves;
• means for converting received signals into phase delay and amplitude information;
• means for converting the received signals with the phase delay and amplitude information into a multi-dimensional function with parameters related to a spatial location and time of each transmission;
• and
• means for converting the multi-dimensional function into a multi-dimensional velocity vector.

An ultrasonic velocity analyzing device comprising:

• a transducer including an array of elements;
• means for driving repeatedly part of said transducer elements in a prescribed interval thereby to repeatedly transmit an ultrasonic wave to a target;
• a first one-dimension Fourier transform means, including a plurality of outputs, for performing Fourier transformation with respect to a direction of alignment for signals from said transducer elements;
• and
• a second one-dimension Fourier transform means which treats the outputs of said first one-dimension Fourier transform means as two-dimension signals of time series corresponding to the transmission of the ultrasonic wave and treats, with respect to a plurality of straight lines coinciding at an origin of a coordinate with respective angles, signal values on each of the straight lines as a one-dimension sequence of numbers to perform the Fourier transformation;
• wherein the lateral velocity and the axial velocity of a moving object in said target are obtained.

An ultrasonic velocity analyzing device comprising:

• means for repeatedly transmitting an ultrasonic wave to a target;
• a transducer including an array of transducer elements for receiving ultrasonic waves reflected from said target;
• a sampling means for sampling signals from said transducer elements;
• a Fourier transducer means, including a plurality of outputs, for performing Fourier transformation on the signals, which are provided from said transducer elements to be sampled, with respect to a direction of said transducer elements;
• and
• means for deriving a target velocity by analyzing the outputs of said Fourier transformer means on a multi-dimensional plane having a first axis indicating locations of the outputs of said Fourier transformer means and a second axis indicating a direction of repetitive transmission.