Estimation of Tube Wall Compliance Using Pulse-Echo Acoustic Reflectometry

This work was primarily supported by the NIH/MBRS-SCORE program. Abstract-This paper focuses on the estimation of tube wall compliance using reflection analysis of acoustic pulses. The wall compliance of a rubber latex tube was found theoretically using an acoustical transmission line model. Wall compliance was also obtained experimentally from acoustical and mechanical measurements. The acoustically estimated, mechanically estimated, and simulated wall compliances were CwExp=6.55·10-7 cm5/dyne, CwMech=6.89·10-7 cm5/dyne and CwSim= 5.18·10-7 cm5/dyne, respectively. The methods developed and the preliminary results obtained from this research could serve as the groundwork for the development of a device that determines the pathological condition of compliant biological conduits such as the airways.