Resonance attenuation of ultrasonic waves in a superconductor with a moving vortex structure

Equations describing the interaction of ultrasonic waves with a moving vortex structure are derived. The addition to attenuation and the relative change in the velocity of longitudinal ultrasonic waves due to this interaction are calculated. It is found that when a longitudinal ultrasonic wave propagates along the direction of motion of the vortex structure and the velocity V of the structure is equal to half the velocity of the wave, then anomalous acoustic attenuation occurs and the contribution from the ultrasound-vortex interaction to the velocity of the ultrasonic wave vanishes. It is shown that if the vortex structure moves at a sufficiently high velocity, then (in contrast to the case of the structure at rest) a weakly damping collective mode propagating with velocity 2V arises in the structure. It is this mode that is responsible for anomalous attenuation of longitudinal ultrasonic waves.     

Generation and detection of nano ultrasound waves with a multiple strained layer structure

In this paper a multiple strained layer structure with multiple quantum wells as a piezoelectric transducer is proposed for generating and detecting nano ultrasound waves with nanometer wavelength and tera hertz frequency. By inducing femtosecond optical pulses at this strained structure, internal piezoelectric field is changed. As a result longitudinal acoustic phonon oscillations can be treated as nano acoustic waves. It could be noticed in simulated cases that detection of nano ultrasound waves can be used in non destructive testing and high accuracy measurements with this structure. It is also shown that the MQW structure design how influences in generated nano acoustic waves.     

Electromagnetic generation of ultrasound in metals at low temperatures

Excitation of longitudinal and transverse ultrasound by electromagnetic waves incident on the metal surface is the subject of the present work. This is a simple and convenient experimental technique. The reason for this approach is to overcome the primary difficulty during precise measurements of the frequency or temperature dependences of the velocity and attenuation of ultrasound in pure metals by the conventional methods where it is difficult to achieve reliable acoustic contact between the transducer and the sample. The reasons are (i) the creation of this contact unavoidably results in a deformation of a surface layer of the metal affecting the experimental results, (ii) as the temperature is varied over a broad range, the properties of the acoustic contact itself change resulting in non-reproducible experimental results.     

Ultrasonic attenuation in pearlitic steel

Expressions for the attenuation coefficients of longitudinal and transverse ultrasonic waves are developed for steel with pearlitic microstructure. This type of lamellar duplex microstructure influences attenuation because of the lamellar spacing. In addition, longitudinal attenuation measurements were conducted using an unfocused transducer with 10 MHz central frequency on the cross section of a quenched railroad wheel sample. The dependence of longitudinal attenuation on the pearlite microstructure is observed from the changes of longitudinal attenuation from the quenched tread surface to deeper locations. The results show that the attenuation value is lowest and relatively constant within the quench depth, then increases linearly. The experimental results demonstrate a reasonable agreement with results from the theoretical model. Ultrasonic attenuation provides an important non-destructive method to evaluate duplex microstructure within grains which can be implemented for quality control in conjunction with other manufacturing processes.     

Lens multielement acoustic microscope in the mode for measuring the parameters of layered objects

An acoustic microscope with a cylindrical lens and ultrasound transducer have been considered, as well as the method based on it for the measuring of longitudinal and transverse wave velocities, the thickness and density of the investigated layer. A theoretical model of the microscope has been constructed, and the relation between the spatiotemporal output signal of the transducer and the angular dependence of the sample reflection coefficient has been found. It has been shown that the velocities of body waves and the thickness can be determined by the delays of ultrasound responses reflected from the layer boundaries measured by the transducer elements, and the density, by the amplitudes of these responses. The method was tested experimentally using a 20-element transducer with a central frequency of 15 MHz and a period of 0.8 mm. The example of a duralumin plate has shown that the error in measuring the thickness and velocity of longitudinal waves error does not exceed 1%; the velocity of transverse waves, 2%; and the density can be estimated with an accuracy of about 5%.     

Determination of acoustic impedances of multi matching layers for narrowband ultrasonic airborne transducers at frequencies <2.5 MHz - Application of a genetic algorithm

The effective ultrasonic energy radiation into the air of piezoelectric transducers requires using multilayer matching systems with accurately selected acoustic impedances and the thickness of particular layers. One major problem of ultrasonic transducers, radiating acoustic energy into air, is to find the proper acoustic impedances of one or more matching layers. This work aims at developing an original solution to the acoustic impedance mismatch between transducer and air. If the acoustic impedance defences between transducer and air be more, then finding best matching layer(s) is harder. Therefore we consider PZT (lead zirconate titanate piezo electric) transducer and air that has huge acoustic impedance deference. The vibration source energy (PZT), which is used to generate the incident wave, consumes a part of the mechanical energy and converts it to an electrical one in theoretical calculation. After calculating matching layers, we consider the energy source as layer to design a transducer. However, this part of the mechanical energy will be neglected during the mathematical work. This approximation is correct only if the transducer is open-circuit. Since the possibilities of choosing material with required acoustic impedance are limited (the counted values cannot always be realized and applied in practice) it is necessary to correct the differences between theoretical values and the possibilities of practical application of given acoustic impedances. Such a correction can be done by manipulating other parameters of matching layers (e.g. by changing their thickness). The efficiency of the energy transmission from the piezoceramic transducer through different layers with different thickness and different attenuation enabling a compensation of non-ideal real values by changing their thickness was computer analyzed (base on genetic algorithm). Firstly, three theoretical solutions were investigated. Namely, Chebyshev, Desilets and Souquet theories. However, the obtained acoustic impedances do not necessarily correspond to a nowadays available material. Consequently, the values of the acoustic impedances are switched to the nearest values in a large material database. The switched values of the acoustic impedances do not generally give efficient transmission coefficients. Therefore, we proposed, in a second step, the use of a genetic algorithm (GA) to select the best acoustic impedances for matching layers from the material database for a narrow band ultrasonic transducer that work at frequency below the 2.5 MHz by considering attenuation. However this bank is rich, the results get better. So the accuracy of the propose method increase by using a lot of materials with exact data for acoustic impedance and their attenuation, especially in high frequency. This yields highly more efficient transmission coefficient. In fact by using increasing number of layer we can increase our chance to find the best sets of materials with valuable both in acoustic impedance and low attenuation. Precisely, the transmission coefficient is almost equal to unity for the all studied cases. Finally the effect of thickness on transmission coefficient is investigated for different layers. The results showed that the transmission coefficient for air media is a function of thickness and sensitive to it even for small variation in thickness. In fact, the sensitivity increases when the differences of acoustic impedances to be high (difference between PZT and air).     

Optimal Acoustic Attenuation of Weakly Compressible Media Permeated with Air Bubbles

Based on fuzzy logic （FL） and genetic algorithm （GA）, we present an optimization method to obtain the optimal acoustic attenuation of a longitudinal acoustic wave propagating in a weakly compressible medium permeated with air bubbles. In the optimization, the parameters of the size distribution of bubbles in the medium are optimized for providing uniformly high acoustic attenuation in the frequency band of interest. Compared with other traditional optimization methods, the unique advantage of the present method is that it can locate the global optimum quickly and effectively in need of knowing the mathematical model precisely. As illustrated by a numerical simulation, the method is effective and essential in enhancing the acoustic attenuation of such a medium in an optimal manner. The bubbly medium with optimized structural parameters can effectively attenuate longitudinal waves at intermediate frequencies with an acoustic attenuation approximating a constant value of lO（dB/cm）. Such bubbly media with optimal acoustic attenuations may be applied to design acoustic absorbent by controlling broader attenuation band and higher efficiency.     

Gigahertz modulators using bulk acousto-optic interactions in thin-film waveguides

Abstract

When bulk acoustic waves are applied to an optical waveguide, several modulation effects are observed, depending on the type of wave (longitudinal or shear). Longitudinal sound waves frequency-shift the guided light, thus providing a means of modulating light in a wide variety of waveguide materials. Using thin-film mosaic acoustic transducer technology, we have demonstrated such modulation at frequencies in the gigahertz region. By segmenting the acoustic transducer electrodes, the same arrangement can be used for deflecting the light since, with this arrangement, the acoustic field sets up a time-varying grating whose spatial frequency is set by the segment spacing. Theoretical frequency limitations on these devices do not appear to be important until approximately 30 GHz is reached. Thus, they are potentially useful for extremely wide-band data links. Experiments at 1.5 GHz show 30% bandwidth of acoustic modulation using optical heterodyne detection.     

Transient acoustic field radiated by a thickness—shear mode transducer

The acoustic field generated by a thickness—shear mode transducer is theoretically analysed by an approximate model to find the origin of the longitudinal pulse in the signal received by the same transducer. It is believed to arise from the edge longitudinal wave.     

Properties of photocured epoxy resin materials for application in piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer matching layers

This paper describes the acoustic properties of a range of epoxy resins prepared by photocuring that are suitable for application in piezoelectric ultrasonic transducer matching layers. Materials, based on blends of diglycidyl ether of Bisphenol A and 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol diglycidyl ether, are described. Furthermore, in order to vary the elastic character of the base resin, samples containing polymer microspheres or barium sulfate particles are also described. The acoustic properties of the materials are determined by a liquid coupled through transmission methodology, capable of determining the velocity and attenuation of longitudinal and shear waves propagating in an isotropic layer. Measured acoustic properties are reported which demonstrate materials with specific acoustic impedance varying in the range 0.88-6.25 MRayls. In the samples comprising blends of resin types, a linear variation in the acoustic velocities and density was observed. In the barium sulfate filled samples, acoustic impedance showed an approximately linear variation with composition, reflecting the dominance of the density variation. While such variations can be predicted by simple mixing laws, relaxation and scattering effects influence the attenuation in both the blended and filled resins. These phenomena are discussed with reference to dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and differential scanning calorimetry of the samples.     

Propagation of longitudinal elastic waves in a fluid-saturated porous medium with spherical inclusions

The Frenkel-Biot theory is used to study the propagation of a longitudinal harmonic wave of the first kind in an isotropic porous matrix with inclusions contrasting in elastic properties and hydrodynamic permeability. The generation of elastic waves of the second kind at the boundaries of inclusions is taken into account. The effective wave number of the longitudinal wave is calculated using the equations of multiple scattering theory. The characteristic size of inhomogeneities is assumed to be much greater than the size of pores. The parameters of the model used for calculations correspond to sandstone with centimeter-scale inhomogeneities. The presence of such inhomogeneities is typical of sedimentary rocks. Calculations show that, in the frequency range of acoustic logging, the effective attenuation factor of the longitudinal wave may noticeably exceed the attenuation factors of longitudinal waves of the first kind in both matrix and inclusions. From the results obtained, it follows that, when studying the propagation of elastic waves in fluid-saturated porous media, it is necessary to take into account the hydrodynamic effects associated with the filtration overflows that arise at the boundaries of inhomogeneities.     

Measurement method of particle concentration and acoustic properties in suspension using a focused ultrasonic impulse radiated from a plano-concave transducer

As a method to measure the concentration and property of a particle suspension, we proposed an ultrasonic measurement method using a plano-concave ultrasonic transducer. To carry out the experiment, we used a focused ultrasonic impulse with a broad frequency bandwidth radiated from the transducer, instead of utilizing continuous waves as in the conventional method. By analyzing the frequency components of the echo returned from the reflector put at the focal region of the transducer in suspension, we measured the concentration, etc., from variations of attenuation in the frequency spectrum. As specimens, we used some substances containing fine particles for which the acoustic properties or sizes are heterogeneous to each other. Specifically, the milk fat included in milk was examined in detail to characterize the best-tasting milk. In conclusion, we determined that the particle concentration and acoustic properties were easily and instantaneously measurable using the frequency spectrum obtained from pulse echoes passed through the specimen liquid, and the plano-concave transducer was advantageous in these measurements.     

Gigahertz modulators using bulk acousto-optic interactions in thin-film waveguides

When bulk acoustic waves are applied to an optical waveguide, several modulation effects are observed, depending on the type of wave (longitudinal or shear). Longitudinal sound waves frequency-shift the guided light, thus providing a means of modulating light in a wide variety of waveguide materials. Using thin-film mosaic acoustic transducer technology, we have demonstrated such modulation at frequencies in the gigahertz region. By segmenting the acoustic transducer electrodes, the same arrangement can be used for deflecting the light since, with this arrangement, the acoustic field sets up a time-varying grating whose spatial frequency is set by the segment spacing. Theoretical frequency limitations on these devices do not appear to be important until approximately 30 GHz is reached. Thus, they are potentially useful for extremely wide-band data links. Experiments at 1.5 GHz show 30% bandwidth of acoustic modulation using optical heterodyne detection.     

Rayleigh wave dispersion and attenuation on a statistically rough free surface of a hexagonal crystal

Dispersion and attenuation of Rayleigh surface acoustic waves on a statistically rough free surface of a Z-cut hexagonal crystal were analytically studied using a modified mean-field method within the perturbation theory. Numerical calculations were carried out in the frequency range accessible for the perturbation theory using expressions for the real and imaginary parts of the complex frequency shift of Rayleigh waves caused by a slight surface roughness. The Rayleigh wave dispersion and attenuation in the Z-cut hexagonal crystal were shown to coincide qualitatively with those in an isotropic medium, differing only quantitatively. In the long-wavelength limit λ?a, where a is the lateral roughness correlation length, explicit analytical expressions for the relative change in the phase velocity and the inverse damping depth of Rayleigh waves were derived and used in numerical calculations.     

Anomalous ultrasonic attenuation in vitreous silica at low temperatures

The attenuation of longitudinal sound waves of 750 and 970 MHz has been determined in vitreous silica down to 0.4 K. The unsaturated attenuation observed at the smallest incident acoustic intensities allows a quantitative comparison with the “tunneling model” for glasses.     

Three-dimensional acoustic Fabry-Perot interferometer of α-quartz as converter of acoustic modes

A cube of α-quartz with polished flat and parallel sides was used as an acoustic three-dimensional Fabry-Perot interferometer. The sides of the cube are perpendicular to the crystallographic axesx, y, z of the quartz. By means of a transducer, transverse elastic waves were injected along thez-axis. Because of anisotropy, this produces a diffuse acoustic field in the cube. From this diffuse field, the interferometer selects pure longitudinal acoustic waves along thex andz axis, which were identified by means of the different velocities of propagation.     

Rayleigh wave attenuation due to the scattering by two-dimensional irregularities of the walls of an empty borehole

Attenuation of the Rayleigh waves propagating along an irregular surface of an empty borehole is investigated. This problem generalizes the problem on the attenuation of Rayleigh waves by an irregular boundary of a half-space. The technique used to evaluate the attenuation coefficient is based on the perturbation method and the mean field method. As a result, an expression is obtained that relates the partial attenuation coefficients of the surface Rayleigh wave to the scattering by the irregular surface of an empty borehole into the bulk longitudinal and transverse waves (the R → P and R → S processes) and into the surface Rayleigh waves (the R → R processes). The frequency-dependent behavior of the partial attenuation coefficients is analyzed for different correlation functions of irregularities.     

经颅超声聚焦方法和声场特性研究

基于高分辨的CT数据建立了非均匀颅骨仿真模型,该模型引入了颅骨的声衰减系数,深入研究和分析了声波时间反转法和超声相控阵法在颅脑中的聚焦方法及效果。颅骨具有较强的声波衰减特性,使用时间反转聚焦时需要进行幅度补偿,对于0.7MHz的频率信号,幅度补偿后的时间反转聚焦声场主瓣宽度窄、旁瓣低,焦点处声场比无幅度补偿的时间反转法提高8.86dB,比超声相控阵聚焦法提高7.89dB,具有很好的空间聚焦精度和聚焦效率。研究了颅骨衰减系数、声场焦点位置、声波频率、换能器阵列位置和方位等参数对聚焦声场的影响,结果表明,幅度补偿时间反转法比相控阵法具有更低的旁瓣,且高频时的聚焦效果比相控阵好,相控阵聚焦对换能器阵列的位置和方位比较敏感,而时间反转经颅超声聚焦对声传播路径和入射角具有更高的鲁棒性。      

Anisotropy of the phonon-phason dynamics and the pinning effect in icosahedral AlPdMn quasicrystals

A minimal model of the phonon-phason dynamics in icosahedral quasicrystals with inclusion of the pinning effect is suggested. Resonant attenuation of low-frequency acoustic waves in the temperature range corresponding to thermal activation of phasons is considered. In the long-wave length limit, the velocity of acoustic phonons is isotropic; however, the phonon-phason coupling causes anisotropy of the velocity and of the attenuation of acoustic waves with small wave vectors. These effects manifest themselves most strongly at an acoustic wave frequency close to the inverse relaxation time of phasons with the same wave vector. The pinning effect can cause a significant decrease in the anisotropy of the velocity and of attenuation of acoustic waves.     

Bolt axial stress measurement based on a mode-converted ultrasound method using an electromagnetic acoustic transducer

A method is proposed to measure the stress on a tightened bolt using an electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT). A shear wave is generated by the EMAT, and a longitudinal wave is obtained from the reflection of the shear wave due to the mode conversion. The ray paths of the longitudinal and the shear wave are analyzed, and the relationship between the bolt axial stress and the ratio of time of flight between two mode waves is then formulated. Based on the above outcomes, an EMAT is developed to measure the bolt axial stress without loosening the bolt, which is required in the conventional EMAT test method. The experimental results from the measurement of the bolt tension show that the shear and the mode-converted longitudinal waves can be received successfully, and the ratio of the times of flight of the shear and the mode-converted longitudinal waves is linearly proportional to the bolt axial tension. The non-contact characteristic of EMAT eliminates the effect of the couplant and also makes the measurement more convenient than the measurement performed using the piezoelectric transducer. This method provides a promising way to measure the stress on tightened bolts.