Multi-path propagation of acoustical wave and time reversal field in a solid plate

The multi-path effect of the acoustical wave in a solid plate is studied. The multireflection and wave conversion of the cylindrical compressional and shear waves, which are excited by an infinite strip on a free surface of the solid plate, are analyzed thoroughly by the far-field approximation method. The concise analytical representations of the cylindrical waves are obtained. The time reversal processing is then applied to the propagation of the cylindrical waves and analyzed theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that the waves coming from different array elements and different paths all arrive at the original place after the time reversal operation. It indicates that the time reversal can compensate automatically the wave aberration caused by the multi-path effect. The self-adaptive focusing of the time reversal field is also analyzed quantificationally by the focusing gain and the ratio of the principal to the second lobe. The effects of the focus position and the aperture of the transducer array on the focused field are also investigated. It shows that theoretical and experimental results are consistent to each other very well.