Generalized velocity profile evaluation of multipath ultrasonic phased array flowmeter

Phased array transducers sweep ultrasonic beams electronically without moving the probe which can be used in multipath ultrasonic flowmeters to reduce the number of transducers. The path arrangements optimization and numerical integration improvement are based on a model for the flow field. Therefore, the accuracy of multipath ultrasonic flowmeters is strongly influenced when the flow field deviates from the assumed velocity model. In this paper, a generalized velocity model is presented to reduce the sensitivity of flow measurement to deviation of the flow field. The performance of multipath ultrasonic phased array flowmeter is investigated using Gaussian quadrature method based on the generalized model under different flow fields. The results reveal that the generalized model is able to reduce the sensitivity of multipath phased array flowmeters to flow field. The minimum mean of relative errors is within 1.64% under symmetric and asymmetric flow fields.