Quantitative measurement of wall shear rate by pulsed Doppler ultrasound

A 20 MHz pulsed Doppler ultrasound system was used to obtain steady flow velocity profiles in cylindrical tubes. A deconvolution technique was employed to improve the spatial resolution and the corrected results were compared with Poiseuille's theory. Frequency domain windowing was used to suppress noise in the deconvolution procedure, using a method which reduced distortions at the window boundaries. Wall shear rate was calculated from the measured velocity profiles both before and after deconvolution, and compared with theory to quantify the accuracy of the technique. The results illustrate the significant improvement provided by deconvolution, with the average error in measured wall shear rate reducing from 46 to 12% after applying the technique. Some of the discrepancy is in part attributed to the method used to determine wall shear rate.