Recent approaches to the measurement of acoustic impedance and materials characterization

Three methods are discussed: an automated pulse tube system; a direct, point measurement technique; and the application of a parametric array for oblique angle measurement.The first of these extends the capability of a proven impedance measurement technique using a waterborne acoustic waveguide (pulse tube). Data obtained in a frequency range 3 to 100 kHz, determined from complex reflection coefficients, are presented, via a transfer function analyser interfacing with a computer and plotter, to produce impedance diagrams.A direct, point impedance technique based on sensing particle velocity, or displacement of a surface and associated acoustic pressure is next discussed. Use is made of laser interferometry to measure the vector quantity, while scalar values are determined from a pressure sensor. This data affords a direct measurement of point impedance and can be applied in obtaining complex response information from heterogeneous materials or structures.The last method employs a non-linear acoustic device to obtain a requisite acoustic beam-width allowing characterization of materials at oblique angles, with samples of limited size, at low ultrasonic frequencies.     

A direct method for acoustic impedance measurement based on the measurement of electrical impedance of acoustic transmitter

A simple and straight forward method for acoustic impedance measurement is presented and evaluated. In this method a speaker is used as the signal source. The relationship between the electrical impedance of the speaker and its acoustical load is developed and studied. It is shown that the electrical current and voltage of the speaker relate to the acoustical pressure and volume velocity. The mechanical and acoustical impedances are therefore easily derived by measuring the electrical current and voltage of the circuit. The proposed method yield itself to the automatic computer measurement and can be used for the field and in situ measurements.Comparison of the measurement data with those from other methods proves the applicability and accuracy of the proposed method.     

The acoustic impedance of perforated plates under various flow conditions relating to combustion chamber liners

The absorption of sound by cavities lined with perforated sheets depends crucially on the impedance of the orifices in the sheets. Although the theory for that absorption in the absence of a mean flow was well-developed in 1926, the presence of either a ‘bias’ flow through the orifices, or of a flow ‘grazing’ the sheet and deflecting the acoustic jets, radically alters the absorption. There are many theoretical and experimental treatments of the various cases, some of which are reviewed here. However, there has been little attempt to show how these data relate to one another, and this is also undertaken. The frequency dependence of the impedance is here expressed in terms of a Helmholtz number and used as the prime parameter for comparison. Theories for the cases where the mean flow is negligible are naturally based on the viscous penetration depth, whereas those for bias flow have a Strouhal number as the main parameter and are independent of viscosity. It is found that there are major uncertainties in the impedance for higher Strouhal numbers, when the bias flow is small. A criterion for transition to the no-bias flow theory is proposed. Theories and correlations for grazing flow rationally feature a Strouhal number based on the friction velocity in the duct, since this determines the boundary layer characteristics, but there should be a smooth transition to the case where the grazing flow can be considered negligible. Criteria for this are also proposed, based on the available experimental data. When both types of flow are present, particularly when the grazing velocity is larger than the bias velocity, the available data are very limited.     

Video techniques applied to the characterization of liquid sheet breakup

The understanding of the disintegration of a thin liquid film is the first step to obtain an accurate model of air-blast atomization. Various physical phenomena are involved in liquid sheet breaking. Planar sheets are often studied, assuming that the sheet behavior is representative of the behavior of real annular sheets, because their investigation is easier using optical techniques. Those kinds of measurements have been applied to determine and quantify the different steps of droplet generation. Global oscillation of the liquid sheet, ligaments formation and their breaking are approached. The evolution of ligament spacing according to oscillation frequency removes the sheet thickness influence. Correlations are now applicable to determine size of initial droplets. In this study the same investigation techniques have been applied on annular and planar configurations to find the eventual discrepancies.     

Review of LDA and PIV applied to the measurement of sound and acoustic streaming

A review of laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) with their application to the measurement of sound is presented. The fundamental principles behind LDA and PIV are discussed and extended to the application of sound measurement. Special attention is paid to analysis of LDA signals including the Hilbert transform, which enables amplitude information to be obtained about various frequency components of a signal and wavelet analysis, which allows non-stationary signals to be accurately analysed. The influence of the refractive index variations in a medium due to a sound wave on the laser beams of an LDA signal is discussed. Attention is also paid to acoustic streaming which arises due to high-intensity sound, and PIV results are presented to demonstrate the effect.     

Experimental source characterization techniques for studying the acoustic properties of perforates under high level acoustic excitation

This paper discusses experimental techniques for obtaining the acoustic properties of in-duct samples with non-linear acoustic characteristic. The methods developed are intended both for studies of non-linear energy transfer to higher harmonics for samples only accessible from one side such as wall treatment in aircraft engine ducts or automotive exhaust systems and for samples accessible from both sides such as perforates or other top sheets. When harmonic sound waves are incident on the sample nonlinear energy transfer results in sound generation at higher harmonics at the sample (perforate) surface. The idea is that these sources can be characterized using linear system identification techniques similar to one-port or two-port techniques which are traditionally used for obtaining source data for in-duct sources such as IC-engines or fans. The starting point will be so called polyharmonic distortion modeling which is used for characterization of nonlinear properties of microwave systems. It will be shown how acoustic source data models can be expressed using this theory. Source models of different complexity are developed and experimentally tested. The results of the experimental tests show that these techniques can give results which are useful for understanding non-linear energy transfer to higher harmonics.     

A comparison of the source location techniques of the acoustic telescope and polar correlation

Previous papers have described the principles of two acoustic source location techniques, those of polar correlation and the acoustic telescope. In this paper the techniques are compared in terms of their computational procedures with the aim of displaying similarities rather than enlarging on their difference. From these consideration, some guidelines emerge for choosing between them according to the particular application, and methods are suggested for combining the techniques to obtain improvements in both.     

声相关流体速度测量理论和信号处理方法

研究了测量流体速度的声相关测速理论和信号处理方法。获得了在声呐阵夫琅和费区域内适用的声呐阵时空相关函数,它是指数函数,这是相关测流速的理论模型。重点研究了时空声相关函数最大值附近的特性,它包含流速的主要信息。提出了局域最小二乘估计作为速度估计准则,采用序列二次规划作为最优化的方法,由此建立了声相关流速测量的信号处理方法。进行多次海上系统试验,验证了理论模型;给出了声相关海流剖面仪测得的流速、流向和流速剖面,与声多普勒海流剖面仪进行了对比,结果符合;最后给出了声相关海流剖面仪的测速均方差,稍大于理论值。     

Theory and signal processing of acoustic correlation techniques for current velocity measurement

A theoretical model and signal processing of acoustic correlation measurements to estimate current velocity are discussed. The sonar space-time correlation function of volume reverberations within Fraunhofer zone is derived. The function, which is in exponential forms, is the theoretical model of acoustic correlation measurements. The characteristics of the correlation values around the maximum of the amplitude of the correlation function, where most information about current velocity is contained, are primarily analyzed. Localized Least Mean Squares （LLMS） criterion is put forward for velocity estimation. Sequential Quadratic Programming （SQP） method is adopted as the optimization method. So the systematic signal processing method of acoustic correlation techniques for current velocity measurement is established. A prototype acoustic correlation current profiler （ACCP） underwent several sea trials, the results show that theoretical model approximately coincides with experimental re- sults. Current profiles including the speed and direction from ACCP are compared with those from acoustic Doppler current profiler （ADCP）. The current profiles by both instruments agree reasonably well. Also, the standard deviation of velocity measurement by ACCP is statistically calculated and it is a little larger than predicted value.     

Block spin techniques applied to the ising model

A detailed study of the critical behaviour of the Ising model in 1+1 and 2+1 dimensions is made using an approximate real space renormalization transformation which involves block spins. The critical indices α, β, η, and ν are calculated and compared with previous results, as is the critical couplingy _c. The method is shown to respect one of the scaling relations, and in 1+1D some exact results are reproduced (y _c=1, ν=1).     

声相关载体速度测量理论和信号处理方法

研究了测量水中载体相对于海底速度的相关测速理论和信号处理方法。在速度存在随机分量的情形下,获得了在夫琅和费区域内适用的声呐阵时空相关函数,它是由零阶、一阶和二阶贝塞尔函数组成,波形不变原理能良好地成立,这是相关测速的理论模型。提出了局域最小二乘估计作为速度估计准则,采用序列二次规划法作为最优化的方法,由此建立了声相关测速的信号处理方法。在深海进行了多次系统试验,实验数据与理论模型基本符合;检验了深海3560 m水深时的闭环试验测速误差;进行了变速试验和漂泊试验,上述性能均为优良。最后给出了声相关速度计程仪(CVL)与GPS的线性回归分析,它们之间有良好的相关性。CVL均方根误差不大于(1.4%v+3) cm/s,其中v为航速。     

The scanning acoustic microprobe: II. Application to the measurement and characterization of a piston reflector

In a pulsed ultrasound beam, echoes detected from a flat, circular piston of arbitrary size depend on the time-space characteristics of the entire pulse-echo measurement system, being a function of as many parameters as it takes to accurately define the system. In the limiting case of a target that is small relative to the spatial extent of an interrogating plane wave, an echo pattern is known to be a relatively simple function of the dimensionless product k0b, where k0 is the wave number and b is the radius of the target. In a companion paper preceding this one [F. E. Barber, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 90, 8-17 (1991)], the author has described the scanning acoustic microprobe, a pulse-echo system in which the time-space properties of the interrogating waves are specified completely by k0 and a single additional parameter s0, which is the characteristic radius of a spherically symmetric, Gaussian-distributed scattering volume. In this system, the reflection pattern of a flat, circular piston of any arbitrary size is thus a function of two dimensionless parameters, namely k0b and b/s0. In this paper, this functional relationship is derived, a physical system is described, and analytical and experimental results are reported. It is shown that the diameter, orientation, and impedance mismatch properties of this simple target can be measured unambiguously over a range of target sizes from about a wavelength (2 pi/k0) to a beam diameter (about 3s0). For a typical ultrasound system, this is about a 5-1 range; i.e., a range extending to target sizes about five times smaller than can be detected in a simple B-mode imaging system.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

A theoretical comparison of attenuation measurement techniques from backscattered ultrasound echoes

Accurate characterization of tissue pathologies using ultrasonic attenuation is strongly dependent on the accuracy of the algorithm that is used to obtain the attenuation coefficient estimates. In this paper, computer simulations were used to compare the accuracy and the precision of the three methods that are commonly used to estimate the local ultrasonic attenuation within a region of interest (ROI) in tissue; namely, the spectral log difference method, the spectral difference method, and the hybrid method. The effects of the inhomgeneities within the ROI on the accuracy of the three algorithms were studied, and the optimal ROI size (the number of independent echoes laterally and the number of pulse lengths axially) was quantified for each method. The three algorithms were tested for when the ROI was homogeneous, the ROI had variations in scatterer number density, and the ROI had variations in effective scatterer size. The results showed that when the ROI was homogeneous, the spectral difference method had the highest accuracy and precision followed by the spectral log difference method and the hybrid method, respectively. Also, when the scatterer number density varied, the spectral difference method completely failed, while the log difference method and hybrid method still gave good results. Lastly, when the scatterer size varied, all of the methods failed.     

脉冲半导体激光器时基脉冲的实验对比测量

以脉冲半导体激光器为例，对3种测量激光脉冲时基抖动技术进行了对比实验。这3种测量技术分别是：基于宽带取样示波器的时基抖动测量技术;基于相位比较检相器的相位噪声测量技术和基于频谱仪的谐波频谱分析技术。对比研究发现：基于宽带取样示波器的时基抖动测量技术适用于脉冲宽带及脉冲抖动较大的光脉冲；基于频谱仪的谐波频谱分析技术适用于低重复频率光脉冲的抖动测量；基于相位比较检相器的相位噪声技术测量精度高、动态范围大、结果可靠，对于高重复频率的超短光脉冲，建议选用相位噪声测量技术测量激光脉冲的时基抖动。     

Contribution to classification of buried objects based on acoustic impedance matching

Determination of material the buried objects are made of could contribute significantly to their recognition, or classification. This is important in detecting buried antipersonnel landmines within the context of humanitarian demining, as well as in a variety of other applications. In this article the concept has been formulated of the approach to buried object's material determination starting with ultrasonic impulse propagation analysis in a particular testing set configuration. The impulse propagates through a characterized transfer material in such a way that a part of it, a reflected wave, carries the information about the buried object's surface material acoustic impedance. The limit of resolution capability is theoretically analyzed and experimentally evaluated and the influencing factors described. Among these, the contact between clean surfaces of the transfer material and buried object is emphasized.     

脉冲声测量技术在光纤水听器测量中的应用

本文介绍了脉冲声测量技术在非消声水池中光纤水听器测量中的应用。理论上分析了脉冲宽度的选择标准，并搭建了实验系统，对某一光纤水听器的声压灵敏度进行了测量，实验结果验证了该技术用于光纤水听器测量的可行性。