1962
: A Phase-Shift Ultrasonic Flowmeter
[1] R. S. Mackay and B. Jacobson, "Endoradiosonde," Nature,
vol. 179, pp. 1239-1240; June 15, 1957.
[2] J. T. Farrar, V. K. Zworykin, and J. Baum, "Pressure sensi-
tive telemetering capsule for study of gastrointestinal motil-
ity," Science, vol. 126, pp. 975-976; Noyember 8, 1957.
[3] J. T. Farrar and J. S. Bernstein, "Recording of intraluminal
gastrointestinal pressures by a radiotelemetering capsule,"
Gastroenterology, vol. 35, pp. 603-612; December, 1958.
14] M. von Ardenne and H. B. Sprung, "tber die gleichzeitige
Registrierung von Druckinderungen und Lageanderungen bei
dem verschluckbaren Intestinalsender," Z. ges. inn. Med., vol.
13, no. 16, pp. 596-601; 1958.
[5] R. S. Mackay, "Radio telemetering from within the human
body," IRE TRANS. ON MEDICAL ELECTRONICS, Vol. ME-6, pp.
100-105; June, 1959.
[6] R. S. Mackay, "Endoradiosondes: further notes," IRE
TRANS. ON MEDICAL ELECrRONICS, vol. ME-7, pp. 67-73;
April, 1960.
[7] R. S. Mackay, "Radio telemetering from within the human
body," Science, vol. 134, pp. 1196-1202; October, 1961.
[8] E. N. Rowlands and H. S. Wolff, "The radio pill," Brit.
Commun. and Electronics, vol. 7, pp. 598-601; August, 1960.
[9] J. T. Farrar and V. K. Zworykin, "Telemetering of gastro-
intestinal pressure in man by means of an intraluminal capsule
W. C.
Summary-An ultrasonic fLowmeter using phase-shift tech-
niques has been developed to measure phasic blood flow in ani-
mals. Lead zirconate titanate transducers are located diagonally
opposed over the vessel so that 1-Mc ultrasound may be trans-
mitted alternately upstream and downstream. The upstream and
downstream transit times are measured by heterodyning the 1-
Mc receiver crystal output to 10 kc, and then feeding this signal
to an audio phasemeter. The phasemeter output is an ac signal
whose magnitude represents flow velocity, and phase (relative
to the chopper drive) indicates flow direction. The phasemeter
output is amplified and synchronously detected to drive a re-
corder.
Y /\T EASURING flow in biological liquids has been
the desire and extended interest of many physi-
ologists. Toward this end, several techniques of
measuring flow have been developed including rotameters,
bubble flowmeters and pitot tubes. Because these devices
come in contact with the fluid, their calibration is easily
* Received March 8, 1962.
The work reported in this paper
supported in part by grants from the National Heart Institutewas
of
the United States Public Health Service (H-5216).
t The Cardiovascular Research Laboratory, Department of Medi-
cine, University of Wisconsin Medical School, Madison, Wis.
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Zarnstorff, et al.
199
REFEREN CES energized from an external wireless source," The Physiologist,
vol. 2, p. 37; August, 1959.
[10] J. T. Farrar, V. K. Zworykin, and C. Berkley, "Telemeter-
ing of physiologic information from the gastrointestinal tract
by an externally energized capsule," presented at Third Inter-
nat'l Conf. on Medical Electronics, London, England; July,
1960.
[11] V. K. Zworykin, J. T. Farrar, R. C. Bostrom, F. L. Hatke,
and G. J. DeBoo, "The measurement of internal physiological
phenomena using passive-type telemetering capsules," 1961
IRE INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION RECORD, pt. 9, pp. 141-144.
[12] S. J. M. England and B. Pasamanick, "Radiotelemetry of
physiological responses in the laboratory animal," Science, vol.
133, pp. 106-107; January, 1961.
[13] A. Uchiyama, "Telemeter for medical use (for intraluminal
diagnosis) " (in Japanese), Joint Annual Convention of Soc.
Applied Physics and Soc. Instrument Technology, Tokyo,
Japan; October, 1959.
[14] J. Nagumo, A. Uchiyama, S. Kimoto, T. Watanuki, K. Suma,
A. Ouchi, M. Kumano, and H. Watanabe, "Echo Capsule for
Medical Use" (in Japanese), Rept. to the Professional Group
on Medical Electronics, the Institute of Electrical Com-
munication Engineers of Japan; May, 1961.
[15] Katsch-Kalk test: One method for diagnosis of a patient of
the gastric disease by measuring acidity of gastric juice sam-
pled through rubber tube after drinking of 0.2 g caffeine.
A Phase-Shift Ultrasonic Flowmeter *
ZARNSTORFFt, MEMBER, IRE, C. A. CASTILLO, M.D.t, ASSOCIATE IRE,
AND C. W. CRUMPTON, M.D.t
effected by clotting when used as blood flowmeters. A
more suitable device for blood flow is one which may be
used external to the vessel. The electromagnetic flow-
meter has been used successfully in this manner.
More recently ultrasonics has been used for fluid flow
measurements.1'2 The successful measurement of blood
flow using ultrasonic pulse techniques has been demon-
strated by Franklin, et al.3 Many of the flows which are
of importance in physiological investigations are in small
vessels and in vessels with low flow velocities. We feel the
INTRODUCTION ultrasonic phase-shift approach may have greater poten-
tial in these applications.
The ultrasonic technique involves the transmission of
high-frequency acoustic waves through the blood in such
a manner that there is an effective axis of
transmission
along the axis of fluid flow. The velocity of sound (trans-
'H. P. Kalmus, "An electric flowmeter," Rev. Sci. Instr., vol.
25, pp. 201-206; March, 1954.
2M. G. Haugan, W. R. Farrall, J. F. Herrick, and E. J.
"An ultrasonic flowmeter," Proc. Nat'l Electronics Conf., Baldes,
pp. 465-475; October, 1955. vol. 2,
'D. L. Franklin, D. W. Baker, R. M. Ellis, and R. F. Rushmer,
"A pulsed ultrasonic flowmeter," IRE TRANS. ON MEDICAL ELEC-
TRONICS, vol. ME-6, pp. 204-206; December, 1959.
200 2 RE TRANSACTIONS ON BIO-MEDICAL ELECTRONICS I/ill
mitted) along the axis of fluid flow is modified by the
velocity of the fluid. The relationship betweeni the fluid- ,
I
.-N
".
1, I ol
-
C. .-
flow velocity and sound transmission time is , I
I "I I
Il//
d REFERENCE
t downstream = {d =
C + v Cos 0
(1)
I

d
t upstream = t, = - (2)
C -v Cos 0
The effects of drift in the electronic circuits can be min-
imized if the difference between upstream and down-
stream transit times is measured.
2dv cos 0 2dv cos 0
tu td = _ COS2 - (3)
C2 VI 0

d = distance between transmission poinlts (trans- Fig. 1-Phase relationship of the reference signal and the received
signal. -A0 indicates the phase slhift (lue to flow.
ducers)
v =average velocity of medium
C = velocity of sound in the medium between upstream and downstream phase shift is propor-
0=angle between sound transmission axis and fluid- tional to frequency. This would suggest that the sensi-
flow axis. tivity of an instrument might simply depend on the acous-
tic frequency. There are two essential problems however:
There are two principal methods of measuring transit The first is that the attenuation of acoustic energy in bio-
time (t., td) of the acoustic wave in the fluid: 1) A short logical tissues and fluids increases with increasing fre-
burst or pulse of acoustic energy may be sent through the quency. The second problem is that small.-phase angles
fluid to a receiving point and the transit time determined become increasingly more difficult to measure, using con-
by measuring the elapsed time between the transmitted ventional techniques as frequency is increased beyond 30
pulse and the received pulse. By repeating this alternately kc. Adequate phase shifts do not occur at normal flow
upstream and downstream the difference in transit time velocities unless the acoustic frequency is of the ordler of
can be determined. This technique is used successfully by 1 or more Mc.
Franklin, et al. 2) Another approach is to send a contin- The problem of measuring small-phase angles at fre-
uous sinusoidal acoustic wave from the transmitting ele- quencies in the megacycle region can be easily resolved by
ment to the receiving element and measuring the transit considering that two sinusoidal signals may be heterodlyned
time by the phase shift between the received signal and to a lower or higher frequency and the phase-angle rela-
the transmitted signal. The phase shift is proportional to tionship of the new signals will be the same as that of the
the total time delay in the direction of transmission. original signals. This technique is used in our present
O upstream = 4- = 2-rft,. (4) flowmeter. It might also be noted at this point that the
O downstream =d = 2rftd. (5) phase angle between two sinusoidal signals may be mul-
tiplied if the frequency of the two original signals is mul-
The difference in transit time can then be obtained by tiplied. The new phase angle will be N times the original
comparing the upstream phase shift to the downstream phase angle, where N is the frequency multiplication fac-
phase shift. tor. Although we have not found it necessary to multiply
,- 'd = AO = 2rf(tu - td) (6) the phase angles, this technique has been used by Noble4
in another application.
where / = the frequency of the acoustic wave. The flow sensing unit is very similar to that used by
It is the latter approach which is used in the flowmeter Franklin and is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1. Two
described in this paper. lead zirconate titanate crystals are located diagonally op-
Fig. 1 demonstrates the relationship of a received signal posed over the vessel. The crystals are held in a fixed
to a sending signal (shifted N X 3600, N 1, 2, 3 . . .) position relative to each other by a lucite holder which has
under upstream and downstream conditions. It will be a suitable bore to accept the vessel. The holder is fabri-
noted that a downstream transmission is characterized by cated as two half-sections which may be easily placed over
an early arrival and an upstream transmission is charac- the outside of the vessel. Each transducer serves alter-
terized by a later arrival of the wave. It is this difference nately as transmitter and receiver. The transmitting crys-
in arrival time (AO) which is proportional to fluid flow
velocity.
Eqs. (4) and (5) indicate that phase shift due to I
F. W. Noble, "Gas chromatograph detector based on the meas-
transmission of sound through the fluid is proportional to urement of sound velocity," Digest of Technical Papers, 12th An-
nual Conf. on Elect. Tech. in Medicine and Biology; November.
the carrier frequency. Also, (6) shows that the difference 1959.

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1962 Zarnstorff, et al.. A Phase-Shift Ultrasonic Flowmeter 201

tal is driven at its resonant frequency of 1 Mc throughout

one-half of the switching interval. By the use of choppers
driven at 125 cps, the direction of sound transmission is
reversed 250 times per second.
The difference between upstream and downstream tran-
sit times is measured by a single-phase detector. The phase n
AMFLtFlIX
CHO"U
DDAODULATOR
ovrpvr
AMKVM

detector compares a constant phase reference signal with I

-L f,-* "" c
T
the received signal from the transducers. A 125-cps square
wave is obtained whose amplitude is proportional to the
flow velocity and whose phase (0 or 1800) relative to the
chopper-drive signal indicates the direction of flow. This
signal is synchronously detected to give an output voltage
whose magnitude and polarity indicates instantaneous flow Fig. 2-Block diagram of the phase-shift ultrasonic flowmeter.
velocity.
put of the phase meter would be a square wave whose am-
BLOCK DIAGRAM plitude would indicate the direction of flow and whose
The block diagram of the instrument is shown in Fig. 2. phase (0 or 180°) relative to the chopper-drive voltage
The transmitter signal is generated by a 1-Mc oscillator. would indicate the direction of flow. One half-cycle of the
This signal is applied through a power amplifier and the square wave would represent upstream transmission and
chopper circuits to the transmitting crystal. A continuous the other half-cycle would represent downstream trans-
acoustic signal is generated and propagated through the mission. The choppers do not have zero switching time so
vessel to the receiver crystal. The output of the receiver it is necessarv to gate or blank the output of the phase
crystal is amplified by a tuned amplifier and applied to a meter during the switching interval. The upstream phase-
mixer where it is heterodyned with a 1.01-Mc oscillator. angle information is stored on one capacitor and down-
A 10-kc difference signal is obtained which contains both stream phase information is stored on another capacitor.
-upstream and downstream information. The 1.01-Mc oscil- A chopper samples the charge on each of these capaci-
lator is also heterodyned directly with the 1.00-Mc oscilla- tors alternately. The difference in charge is amplified by a
tor to provide a 10-kc reference signal. This latter signal 125-cps amplifier and synchronously detected by another
is used as a constant phase reference for the phase de- chopper. The output of the flow meter is a voltage whose
tector. Both the 1.00-Mc and the 1.01-Mc oscillators are magnitude indicates the instantaneous flow velocity and
crystal controlled to provide a stable 10-kc difference fre- whose polarity indicates the direction of flow.
quency. It is important that the chopper drive be synchronized
The receiver and transmitter are coupled to the trans- to the 10-kc signal so that the 10-kc signal does not
ducers through choppers. It is necessary to have a high "'creep" relative to the chopper-drive voltage. The change
degree of isolation between the transmitter and receiver. in the output of the phase meter due to the difference in
The chopper-switching circuit shown in the block diagram transit time is very small and would be very difficult to
provides very good isolation through the signal path. Each detect if the choppers were not synchronized. The blank-
chopper is shielded from the other by grounding the case ing gate for the phase meter output must also be timed
and locating their corresponding sockets in separate very closely with the 10-kc reference voltage. The average
shielded compartments which are joined by single-wire value of the phase meter output pulses are an indication of
leads. It will be noted that the transmitter is always iso- transit time. Any jitter of the gate pulse will cause the
lated from the receiving crystal by a lead which is integrating capacitors to charge to an erroneous voltage.
,grounded at each end. Likewise the receiver is always For this reason the gate is synchronized directly with the
-isolated from the transmitter crystal by a lead which is 10-kc reference signal.
grounded on each end. The chopper-drive voltage and the blanking gate for the
The receiver output consists of bursts of 10-kc voltage, phase meter output are obtained by dividing the 10-kc ref-
.alternate bursts representing upstream and downstream erence signal. The 10-kc signal is squared and differen-
-transmission. tiated by a Schmitt trigger circuit. The 10-kc is then
The phase angle between the 10-kc reference signal and divided by 8 and then by 5 with multivibrators. This pro-
-the 10-kc received signal is measured by the phase meter. vides a source for 250-cps pulses to trigger the gate-gener-
Without integrating or smoothing, the output of the phase ator circuit. The output of the divide by 5 multivibrator
-meter is a series of constant amplitude 10-kc pulses. The is further divided by 2 with a bistable multivibrator. The
average value of these pulses is linearly proportional to 125 cps from this multivibrator drives a power amplifier
-the phase angle being measured. The average value of the which provides the coil voltage for the choppers.
phase meter output alternates (at the switching fre- The 250-cps output from the divide by 5 multivibrator
quency) between a value representing upstream transit is used to trigger a delay multivibrator which determines
time and a value representing downstream transit timre. If the starting point of the phase meter blanking pulse. The
-the choppers had zero switching time, the smoothed out- blanking pulse is generated by a monostable mul-ivibrator.

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202 IRE TRANSACTIONS ON BIO-MEDICAL ELECTRONICS JulY

Fig. 3-Schematic diagram of the phase-shift ultrasonic flowmeter.

REFERENCE
SIGNAL ~ ~ ~

DOWNSTREAM UPSTREAM DOWNSTREAM

RECEIVER
OUTPUJT

Fig. 4-Simultaneous recording of arterial blood pressure (above)

and aortic flow velocity (below) in the thoracic aorta of a dog.
PHASE METLER jJ u v u u VIIVIIGUD
The delay and blanking width are adjustable so that gate
will blank the output of the phase meter for a period PHASE NETE R
GATE-

which is slightly longer than the time it takes the chopper PHASENCTER
GATE + II Il l
to go from one closed contact position to the other closed
contact position. To insure that the gate is accurately timed
with respect to the 10-kc reference signal, the delay and 125 Ws

FLOW SGNAL
______
banking width are terminated with pulses from the
Schmitt trigger circuit. Fig. 5-Timing relationship between various wave forms in the
A complete schematic diagram of the flow meter is phase-shift ultrasonic flowmeter.
shown in Fig. 3. A flow tracing is shown in Fig. 4.

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1962 Zarnstorif, et al.: A Phase-Shift Ultrasonic Flowmeter 203

SPECIFICATIONS R122, 1500 ohms.

Cl, C2, C35, C36: 150 pf.
The flowmeter measures positive and negative flow ve- C3, C22, C24, C25, C26, C31, C32: 0.5 juf.
locities with a linearity which is better than 2 per cent. C4, Cll, C13, C15, C37, C40, C41, C42, C47, C50, C54, C58, C62,
C66: 0.01 ztf.
The 10 to 90 per cent response to a step change in flow C5, C6, C8, C18, C19, C23, C38, C39, C49: 0.001 jtf.
C7, C10, C20: 0.05 jtf.
(simulated electrically at the transducer terminals) is 15 C9, C14: 2.0 gf.
msec. The long and short time stability is equivalent to a C16, C17, C21, C27, C29, C33, C34, C64: 0.1 Rf.
flow velocity of 0.2 cm/sec referred to an effective acous- C44, C48, C52, C53, C57, C61: 10 pf.
C29, C30: 10lf.
tic transmission path length of 2.5 cm. C43: 15 pf.
C45, C60: 25 pf.
PARTS LIST C46: 220 pf.
C51, C55, C56: 47 pf.
Ri, R3, R6, R10, R16, R18, R22, R26, R47, R51, R52, R54, R57, C59: 240 pf.
Rl15, R116, R117, R118: 100 Kohms. C63: 270 pf.
R2, R37, R38, R45, R46, R53, R71, R77, R86, R89, R96, R107, C65: 0.2 .f.
Rlll, R121: 470 Kohms. CR1 1.000 Mc crystal.
R4, R23, R55, R58: 330 ohms. CR2 1.010 Mc crystal.
R5, R25, R56, R59: 4700 ohms. Li 700 > hy.
R7, R12: 100 ohms. L2 0.001 hy.
R9, 27 Kohms. L3 0.8 millihenry
Rll, 68 ohms. L4 100 Rt hy.
R14, R21: 150 ohms. Dl-D8 lNl0O.
R15, R19, R34, R63, R112, R114: 10 Kohms. D9-D12 1N96.
R17, R29, R49, R50, R68, R70, R78, R81, R84, R94, R95, R105: Chl-Ch6 DPDT choppers.
22 Kohms. Phase Meter: AD-YU model 405.
R20, 1800 ohms. VI 6AH6.
R27, R28, R43: 1000 ohms. V2 6AU6.
R30, R41, R44, R123: 47 Kohms. V3 6CL6.
R31, 220 Kohms. V4 12AU7.
R32, R33, R42: 1.0 Mohms. V6 6BE6.
R36, R40: 12 Kohms. V7 6AU6.
R48, R87: 5000 ohms. V8 6BE6.
R60, 82 Kohms. V9 6AU6.
R61, 3900 ohms. V10 12AX7.
R62, 56 Kohms. Vii 6C4.
R64, 50 Kohms. V12 12AU7.
R65, 6800 ohms. V13 6AH6.
R66, 18 Kohms. V14 12AU7.
R72, R75, R79, R80, R83, R85, R90, R92, R93, R97, R99, R108: V15 6U8.
150 Kohms. V16 5965.
R73, R76, R91, R98, R109: 8200 ohms. V17 5965.
R74, R82, R102, RlO: 3.9 Mohms. V18 5965.
R88, 15 Kohms. V19 5965.
RIOO, RIOI: 5600 ohms. V20 5965.
R104, 20 Kohms. V21 12AU7.
R113, 820 ohms. V22 6AQ5.
R119, 270 ohms. V23 6AQ5.

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