Interaction of a spherical acoustic wave with an elastic spherical shell

The interaction of a spherical acoustic wave with an elastic spherical shell is treated analytically. The solution includes the coupling between the acoustic sound field and vibration of the shell with any degree of fluid loading. The formulation for the far-field acoustic pressure is derived in terms of natural spherical wave functions, the properties of the acoustic medium, and the material constants of the shell. The far acoustic field is computed for a thin aluminum shell and several sound source locations over a large range of ka, where k is the wavenumber, and a is the shell radius. It is shown that the acoustic pressure depends significantly on whether the shell is in air or is submerged in water, particularly when the sound source is very near the surface. In air, the sound field of the shell is nearly identical to that of a rigid sphere but, in water, the shell is more compliant, which results in a damped radiation field that is characterized by vibrational resonances throughout the range of frequencies considered. As the sound sources is moved further away from the surface, however, this resonance response decreases very rapidly, and the sound field corresponds more closely to that of the shell in air.     

Tank measurements of scattering from a resin-filled fiberglass spherical shell with internal flaws

This paper presents results of acoustic inversion and structural health monitoring achieved by means of low to midfrequency elastic scattering analysis of simple, curved objects, insonified in a water tank. Acoustic elastic scattering measurements were conducted between 15 and 100 kHz on a 60-mm-radius fiberglass spherical shell, filled with a low-shear-speed epoxy resin. Preliminary measurements were conducted also on the void shell before filling, and on a solid sphere of the same material as the filler. These data were used to estimate the constituent material parameters via acoustic inversion. The objects were measured in the backscatter direction, suspended at midwater, and insonified by a broadband directional transducer. From the inspection of the response of the solid-filled shell it was possible to detect and characterize significant inhomogeneities of the interior (air pockets), the presence of which were later confirmed by x-ray CT scan and ultrasound measurements. Elastic wave analysis and a model-data comparison study support the physical interpretation of the measurements.     

Acoustic beam scattering and excitation of sphere resonance: Bessel beam example

The exact partial wave series for the scattering by a sphere centered on an ideal Bessel beam was recently given by Marston ["Scattering of a Bessel beam by a sphere," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 121, 753-758 (2007)]. That series is applied here to solid elastic spheres in water and to an empty spherical shell in water. The examples are selected to illustrate the effect of varying the beam's conical angle so as to modify the coupling to specific resonances in the response of each type of sphere considered. The backscattering may be reduced or increased depending on properties of the resonance and of the specular contribution. Changing the conical angle is equivalent to changing the beamwidth. Some applications of the Van de Hulst localization principle to the interpretation of the partial wave series and to the interpretation of the scattering dependence on the beam's conical angle are discussed. Some potential applications to the analysis of the scattering by spheres of more general axisymmetric beams are noted.     

Isolating scattering resonances of an air-filled spherical shell using iterative, single-channel time reversal

Iterative, single-channel time reversal is employed to isolate backscattering resonances of an air-filled spherical shell in a frequency range of 0.5-20 kHz. Numerical simulations of free-field target scattering suggest improved isolation of the dominant target response frequency in the presence of varying levels of stochastic noise, compared to processing returns from a single transmission and also coherent averaging. To test the efficacy of the technique in a realistic littoral environment, monostatic scattering experiments are conducted in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City, Florida. The time reversal technique is applied to returns from a hollow spherical shell target sitting proud on a sandy bottom in 14 m deep water. Distinct resonances in the scattering response of the target are isolated, depending upon the bandwidth of the sonar system utilized.     

Sound scattering from underwater elastic spherical shell covered with multilayered medium approximated acoustic cloak

The anechoic performance and mechanism of underwater elastic spherical shell covered with coating are studied at low frequencies.The acoustic cloak is anisotropic material,which can be designed with homogeneous isotropic materials on the basis of effective medium approximation theory.The analytic expression of scattering acoustic field from the shell covered with multilayered medium is formulated and the scattering form function,resonance mode,acoustic field distribution are computed,the scattering characteristics and mechanism of transmission are analyzed.The results show that the direction of sound transmission inside the multilayered medium is changed,the acoustic field is deflected gradually,and the acoustic energy flux is guided around the target,which reduces the scattering intensity at low frequencies,the acoustic intensity of target＇s surface is very weak.Excepting the first resonance peak in spectrum produced by the zero order partial wave,the other resonance modes of elastic spherical shell are not excitated and the multilayered medium can suppress the resonance of the spherical shell effectively.     

A PARAMETRIC STUDY ON THE AXISYMMETRIC MODES OF VIBRATION OF MULTI-LAYERED SPHERICAL SHELLS WITH LIQUID CORES OF RELEVANCE TO HEAD IMPACT MODELLING

The free vibration of spheres composed of inviscid compressible liquid cores surrounded by spherical layers of linear elastic, homogeneous and isotropic materials are studied using three-dimensional elasticity equations. The exact three-dimensional equations are first derived for an N -layered sphere with a liquid core and an extensive parametric study is then presented for the first few natural frequencies of the spheroidal modes of vibration. Non-dimensional frequency parameters are compared with values obtained using lower order membrane and shell theories. It is shown that for a remarkably wide range of geometric and material parameters, which encompasses values typical for the human head, the first ovalling mode of a fluid-filled shell behaves like a membrane filled with incompressible fluid and a simple closed-form expression is derived which closely approximates the natural frequencies obtained using the exact three-dimensional equations.     

Sound wave scattering by a spherical scatterer located near an ice surface

An echo signal is simulated, which is reflected from a spherical scatterer located near an ice surface. The homogeneous water medium in which the scatterer is located is assumed semi-infinite. For the scattering coefficients of the sphere, asymptotic formulas are obtained by the saddle point method, which can be used for sufficiently large distances between the source emitting a spherical wave and the scatterer. For the occurring branch cut integrals using the steepest descent method, asymptotic expressions are also obtained. Numerical results are obtained for an acoustically rigid sphere and an ice sphere. The density of the ice medium and speed of longitudinal waves in it coincide with the analogous parameters of the ice cover. In a wide frequency range of 8–12 kHz, echo signals are compared that have been calculated for two models of media: a water half-space bordering an ice half-space and an ice-covered homogeneous waveguide with a fluid bottom under the assumption that the source placed in the water layer is directional. It is shown that in a large distance interval between the source and the spherical scatterer, the half-space model sufficiently accurately describes the echo signal while substantially reducing calculation time (by approximately a factor of 10 for the waveguide with a depth of 200 m and a sandy bottom considered in the paper).     

Interactive resonant scattering by a cluster of air bubbles in water

An exact, analytical solution is developed for the problem of acoustic-wave scattering from a cluster of ideal, gaseous, spherical bubbles in an unbounded, homogeneous, host fluid. This solution takes into account all modes of oscillation of the bubbles as well as all interactions between them; it is applicable to a wide range of bubble sizes and excitation frequencies. In the low frequency regime, the theory of this paper is shown to reduce to the "monopole" approximation, the effect of higher-order modes being non-negligible only for very small bubble-to-bubble separations. A numerical study of interactive backscattering from small clusters, comprising up to three ideal bubbles, is presented. Interactions between the bubbles are shown to produce downward shifts in the resonance frequency of the cluster, when the scattering configuration is symmetric. Furthermore, asymmetries of the scattering configuration are shown to generate sharp resonances at frequencies above the resonance of the symmetric mode. The results of this paper agree with previous theoretical and experimental work.     

水中分层弹性球壳高频时域回波的声学编码研究

针对水下集群目标及敌我目标识别的难题,该文提出了一种基于水中分层弹性球壳高频时域回波的声学编码原理及方法。推导了水中4层弹性球壳目标散射声压的简正级数解,并与有限元结果进行了对比验证。通过构造高频主动声呐的探测脉冲信号,与4层弹性球壳声传递函数的简正级数解做卷积运算,获得了目标的时域回波脉冲序列。研究了分层弹性球壳的厚度、各层材料属性、排布顺序等对时域回波特征的影响规律,提出了基于时域回波特征的声学编码方法。研究表明：利用水中分层弹性球壳目标高频时域回波特征能够实现声学编码,回波结构稳定,且不受限于探测方向。通过携带或安装这种分层弹性球壳结构,有望识别水下航行体/悬浮体等目标。该文的研究对水下目标的主动探测身份识别及导航等具有一定的参考价值。     

Resonance scattering of canonical elastic shells in absorbing fluid medium

Resonance scattering of elastic spherical shell and cylindrical shell while the surrounding fluid medium has absorption is studied. The normal mode solution derived using exact elastic theory and the separation of variables is still applicable. However, the scattering form function has to be modified for the absorbing medium, otherwise the unreasonable result would be obtained. The backscattering form function in the absorbing medium is redefined, and the form function of elastic spherical and cylindrical shell with vacuum or solid matter filled is calculated in various absorption conditions. The results show that the absorption of surrounding fluid leads to notable attenuation of the coincidence resonances in the mid-frequency, but it has a little influence on the low-frequency resonance scattering induced by the filler inside the shell.     

Scattering and active acoustic control from a submerged spherical shell

This paper is concerned with the scattering from a submerged (heavy fluid) bilaminate spherical shell composed of an outer layer of steel, and an inner layer of radially polarized piezoelectric material. The methodology used includes separation formulas for the stresses and displacements, which in turn are used (coupled with spherical harmonics) to reduce the governing equations to linear systems of ordinary differential equations. This technique uses the full equations of elasticity rather than any of the various thin-shell approximations in determining the axisymmetric scattering from a shell, normal modes of vibration for the shell, as well as voltages necessary for annihilation of a scattered pressure due to insonification of the shell by an incident plane wave.     

Acoustic scattering by benthic and planktonic shelled animals

Acoustic backscattering measurements and associated scattering modeling were recently conducted on a type of benthic shelled animal that has a spiral form of shell (Littorina littorea). Benthic and planktonic shelled animals with this shape occur on the seafloor and in the water column, respectively, and can be a significant source of acoustic scattering in the ocean. Modeling of the scattering properties allows reverberation predictions to be made for sonar performance predictions as well as for detection and classification of animals for biological and ecological applications. The studies involved measurements over the frequency range 24 kHz to 1 MHz and all angles of orientation in as small as 1 degree increments. This substantial data set is quite revealing of the physics of the acoustic scattering by these complex shelled bodies and served as a basis for the modeling. Specifically, the resonance structure of the scattering was strongly dependent upon angle of orientation and could be traced to various types of rays (e.g., subsonic Lamb waves and rays entering the opercular opening). The data are analyzed in both the frequency and time domain (compressed pulse processing) so that dominant scattering mechanisms could be identified. Given the complexity of the animal body (irregular elastic shell with discontinuities), approximate scattering models are used with only the dominant scattering properties retained. Two models are applied to the data, both approximating the body as a deformed sphere: (1) an averaged form of the exact modal-series-based solution for the spherical shell, which is used to estimate the backscattering by a deformed shell averaged over all angles of orientation, and produces reasonably accurate predictions over all k1a(esr) (k1 is the acoustic wave number of the surrounding water and a(esr) is the equivalent spherical radius of the body), and (2) a ray-based formula which is used to estimate the scattering at fixed angle of orientation, but only for high k1a(esr). The ray-based model is an extension of a model recently developed for the shelled zooplankton Limacina retroversa that has a shape similar to that of the Littorina littorea but swims through the water [Stanton et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 236-253 (1998b)]. Applications of remote detection and classification of the seafloor and water column in the presence of shelled animals are discussed.     

Morphology-dependent resonances in dielectric spheres with many tiny inclusions

The morphology-dependent resonances (MDRs) in a dielectric sphere that contains many tiny inclusions are studied by use of a recently developed degenerate perturbation method. Degenerate MDRs in the sphere split into multiplets because of the loss of spherical symmetry and manifest themselves as broadened spectral lines in the scattering cross section. Furthermore, the distribution of MDRs in a multiplet is found to obey Wigner's semicircular theorem.     

Comparison of human skull and spherical shell vibrations—implications for head injury modeling

Spherical shell models have been formulated as geometric approximations of the human head. By insuring geometrical and material similarity between the model and human head, impact response and skull fracture studies were expected to yield results in close agreement with model predictions. This, however, was not the case. Model predictions of skull fracture loads were typically twice the observed level. A comparison was made between the resonant frequencies of two dry human skulls and corresponding spherical shell models. Poor agreement was observed. A vibrational analysis of the model revealed that the uniformity of the spherical shell approximmately doubles the effective stiffness and resonant frequencies as compared with the dry human skull. The elastic modulus of the model was adjusted to bring its resonances into closer agreement with those of the skull. The synthesized“effective” modulus was 50% lower than the material property of human cranial bone. Interestingly, this adjustment also brought model predictions of skull fracture into closer agreement with available human cadaver data.     

Time-varying prediction filter for structural noise reduction in ultrasonic NDE

Predominant physical phenomenon in highly scattering materials is the attenuation due to dispersion. Therefore, received echo has high frequencies more severely attenuated than low frequencies and the structural noise can be modeled as a non-stationary random process. Most of the proposed techniques for enhancing the flaw visibility do not exploit the frequency dependency of the incoming flaw signal, assuming homogeneous behaviour of the insonified material. In this work, a new technique based on exploiting the non-stationary nature of the incoming UT signal is presented. Proposed technique is based on the prediction error obtained with a linear and time-varying parametric model of the noise. By this method, when the analyzed UT echo has only structural noise, the prediction error is low, however, if it contains a flaw, high prediction error occurs because a flaw is a non-predictable alteration of the material structure. Experiments with stainless steel show that this method has an excellent performance on SNR enhancement.     

Enhanced scattering efficiencies in spherical particles with weakly dissipating anisotropic materials

This paper discusses light scattering by a small spherical particle with low dissipation rate and radial anisotropy in optical and magnetic properties, according to the extension of the Mie theory to the diffraction by an anisotropic sphere. It is shown that near plasmon (polariton) resonance frequencies anisotropy can lead to an additional increase in field enhancement.     

Design of metaporous supercells by genetic algorithm for absorption optimization on a wide frequency band

The optimization of acoustic absorption by metaporous materials made of complex unit cells with 2D resonant inclusions is realized using genetic algorithm. A nearly total absorption over a wide frequency band can be obtained for thin structures, even for frequencies below the quarter wavelength resonances i.e., in a sub-wavelength regime. The high absorption performances of this material are due to the interplay of usual visco-thermal losses, local resonances and trapped modes. The density of resonant and trapped modes in this dissipative porous layer, is a key parameter for broadband absorption. The best configurations and critical coupling conditions are found by genetic algorithm optimization. Several types of resonators are included gradually in the studied configurations (split-rings, Helmholtz resonators, back cavities) with increasing complexity. The optimization leads to a metaporous structure with a 2-cm sub-wavelength layer thickness, exhibiting a nearly total absorption between 1800 Hz and 7000 Hz. The influence of the incidence angle on the absorption properties is also shown.     

Air-coupled ultrasound stimulated optical vibrometry for resonance analysis of rubber tubes

Air-coupled ultrasound stimulated optical vibrometry is proposed to generate and detect the resonances of a rubber tube in air. Amplitude-modulated (AM) focused ultrasound radiation force from a broadband air-coupled ultrasound transducer with center frequency of 500 kHz is used to generate a low frequency vibration in the tube. The resonances of several modes of the tube are measured with a laser vibrometer of 633 nm wavelength. A wave propagation approach is used to calculate the resonances of the tube from its known material properties. Theoretical and experimental resonance frequencies agree within 5%. This method may be useful in measuring the in vitro elastic properties of arteries from the resonance measurements in air. It may also be helpful to better understand the coupling effects of the surrounding tissue and interior blood on the vessel wall by measuring the resonance of the vessel in vitro and in vivo.     

Photonic band effects in three dimensional lattices of macroscopic-sized dielectric spheres derived from microwave transmission spectroscopy

Several structures of dielectric spheres (glass) have been arranged and the electromagnetic absorption properties of the resulting materials have been measured in the microwave domain. In all cases strong rejected bands are present while keeping nearly transparent for other frequencies. The physical origin of the observed bands is studied by recording the spectra of the materials as they are grown layer by layer. These data show the appearance of a peak attributed to Bragg scattering generated by the spheres layers. Besides, higher order bands are developed over the resonances that are found even in the single layer of spheres. These are caused by a complex interaction of isolated sphere Mie modes and Bragg scattering in planes perpendicular (or nearly) to the incident radiation.     

Acoustics of shells

We discuss the physical phenomena that arise in the scattering of acoustic waves from fluid-immersed elastic (metal) shells which may be either evacuated or filled with the same or with a different fluid. The phenomena occurring here include the formation of circumferential (peripheral, or “surface”) waves that circumnavigate the shells, propagating either as elastic waves in the shell material or as fluid-borne waves of the Scholte-Stoneley type in the external or the internal fluid. By phase matching along a closed circuit, these waves may lead to prominent resonances in the acoustic scattering amplitude, and we demonstrate how the set of observed resonance frequencies is related to the dispersive phase velocities of the surface waves, so that one can be determined from the other. In addition, we discuss how the dispersion curves (phase velocity plotted vs. frequency) of the various types of surface waves show repulsion phenomena due to their coupling through the boundary conditions. The cases of spherical and cylindrical shells are investigated here as typical examples, and as an introductory topic we additionally mention surface waves on plates where related phenomena also occur. Both the theoretical and the experimental aspects of the present subject will be considered, including the experimental visualization of the surface waves.