Acoustic nonlinearity parameter tomography for biological tissues via parametric array from a circular piston source--theoretical analysis and computer simulations

The acoustic nonlinearity parameter B/A describes the nonlinear features of a medium and may become a novel parameter for ultrasonic tissue characterization. This paper presents a theoretical analysis for acoustic nonlinear parameter tomography via a parametric array. As two primary waves of different frequencies are radiated simultaneously from a circular piston source, a secondary wave at the difference frequency is generated due to the nonlinear interaction of the primary waves. The axial and radial distributions of sound pressure amplitude for the generated difference frequency wave in the near field are calculated by a superposition of Gaussian beams. The calculated results indicated that the difference frequency component of the parametric array grows linearly with distance from the piston source. It therefore provides a better source to do the acoustic nonlinearity parameter tomography because the fundamental and second harmonic signals both have a near field that goes through many oscillations due to diffraction. By using a finite-amplitude insert substitution method and a filtered convolution algorithm, a computer simulation for B/A tomography from the calculated sound pressure of the difference frequency wave is studied. For biological tissues, the sound attenuation is considered and compensated in the image reconstruction. Nonlinear parameter computed tomography (CT) images for several biological sample models are obtained with quite good quality in this study.     

聚焦超声波在层状生物媒质中的二次谐波声场的理论与实验研究

基于Khokhlov-Zabolotkaya-Kuznetsov(KZK)方程，在频域提出了聚焦超声波在层状生物媒质中传播的理论模型，该模型计及生物媒质的吸收、非线性和边界，同时考虑声源的衍射对声传播的影响.数值研究了聚焦超声波的基波和二次谐波在层状生物媒质中的声传播，并与实验结果相比较.研究结果表明，此方法可以有效地描述聚焦超声波在层状生物媒质中的二次谐波声场. 关键词： 聚焦超声波 层状生物媒质 二次谐波     

Ultrasonic field characteristics in resonant standing waves

The application of high performance ultrasound in resonant standing waves recently has obtained some new technical applications as the ultrasonic-standing-wave-atomization (USWA) of liquids. In this application a resonant ultrasonic wave field is generated by means of two oscillating transducers facing each other on a common axis. Characterization of the wave field formation in this resonant, high-amplitude case of ultrasonic standing wave fields is of significant importance for understanding and optimization of such processes. Computational simulation of the sound field provides insight in the complex gas behaviour and atomization process. The numerical simulation of the ultrasonic field characteristics is based on the fundamental hydrodynamic conservation equations including nonlinear and viscous effects. The numerical calculation procedure and boundary conditions will be outlined. Results for the ultrasonic wave field characteristics in standard geometric arrangements as well as possibilities for energy density enhancement will be discussed.     

Attenuation of a resonant dissipative silencer in a rigid duct

Sound attenuation characteristics of a resonant-type dissipative silencer consisting of a reactive chamber with a porous facing have been considered. Such a silencer provides a high degree of attenuation within a narrow frequency range. Predicted attenuation values are compared with experiment for plane waves propagating in a rigid duct containing the dissipative silencer. The sound field is described by one-dimensional acoustical expressions taking into account the effect of boundary conditions and the presence of the silencer. The theoretical model incorporates the acoustical properties of porous materials and inertance of the sound field in the duct adjacent to the silencer. Good agreement was achieved between theoretical predictions and actual measurements. Results presented indicate the dependence of the attenuation spectrum upon flow resistivity and thickness of the porous material.     

Acoustic characteristics analysis of slender cavity system with arbitrary impedance end conditions

A modeling method for the dynamic characteristics analysis of a slender acoustical cavity with impedance end conditions is established. In order to satisfy the continuity requirement at impedance ends for the first order differential of sound pressure, field function is constructed as the standard Fourier series supplemented by boundary smoothed auxiliary polynomials. System characteristic equation is derived by solving the governing differential equation and impedance acoustic boundary of slend...     

A study on the applications of the acoustic design sensitivity analysis of vibrating bodies

The determination of the sensitivity of the acoustical characteristics of vibrating systems with respect to the variation of the design parameters predicting these characteristics is a necessary and important step of the acoustic design and optimization process. Acoustic design sensitivity analysis includes the computation and evaluation of the sensitivity information required for this procedure. In this study, a boundary element code performing the sensitivity analysis of the acoustic pressure by using the matrix sensitivities with respect to different design variables has been developed. The effect of the precision of boundary element discretization on the acoustic pressure sensitivity is examined via this code. The formulation is applied to a multi-source system and the dimension sensitivity analysis of near field pressures of two-dilating-spherical source is performed. The last application is devoted to a real sound source: a washing machine sitting on the floor. Sensitivity of the field pressures to the machine’s dimensions (size), surface velocity and frequency is examined on the bases of the boundary element model of the machine and half-space condition. The impacts of these variables are compared; and a limiting speed for the machine responding both the acoustical and operational requirements is determined.     

高能超声制备碳纳米管增强AZ91D复合材料的声场模拟

建立了高能超声制备碳纳米管增强AZ91D复合材料的声场计算模型, 并采用有限元方法计算了20 kHz超声直接作用下AZ91D熔体的声场分布, 熔体声场呈辐射状分布, 距离声源越远, 声压幅值越低. 采用超声作用下单一气泡变化模型描述超声作用下AZ91D 熔体中的空化效应, 通过对Rayleigh-Plesset方程的求解, 得到了不同声压作用下气泡的变化规律, 获得了声压幅值与熔体空化效应的关系, 声压幅值越大, 气泡溃灭半径阈值越小, 熔体发生空化效应越容易. 计算了固定坩埚尺寸、不同超声探头没入熔体深度情况下的声场, 得到了超声探头最优没入深度为30 mm左右. 将声场计算结果以及AZ91D熔体中空化效应的发生规律进行综合分析, 得到了超声功率对有效空化区域的影响规律, 超声功率较大时, 有效空化区域体积随超声功率近似成线性增大. 最后, 通过甘油水溶液超声处理实验, 验证了模拟计算的准确性.     

A mathematical model for a single screen barrier in open-plan offices

In open-plan offices, single screen barriers are widely used to separate individual workplaces as a means of improving acoustical privacy. In this paper, a general model for calculating the insertion loss of a single screen barrier in the presence of a floor and a ceiling is developed using the image source technique. In addition to the acoustical properties of the floor and ceiling, this model also takes the sound absorption of the screen, the sound transmission through the screen and the interference between the sound waves into account. This model is able to separate the contribution of reflected sound and diffracted sound from the total sound pressure level at the receiving point, which can help indicate how best to improve the acoustical design of an open office. The mean differences between the predicted 1/3 octave band insertion loss values behind the screen and the corresponding measured results are within 2 dB.     

3-D Model of sound pressure field in a meridinal section plane of fruit

A theoretical model was suggested for qualitative evaluation of a sound pressure field in fruit tissue, as affected by ultrasonic probe dimensions and fruit properties. The classic directivity pattern of an ideal fluid model, expressed by Bessel function of the first kind, was extended to include energy dissipation of a real material. The directional characteristics of wave propagation, as influenced by transmitter frequency and diameter, and by fruit properties, were discussed. The model indicates how to select the parameters of the ultrasonic transducer (transducer diameter, frequency and excitation power) to control the magnitude and directivity of the ultrasonic waves in the fruit tissue. The suggested theoretical model represented fairly well the experimental sound wave distribution over the half-cut surface of potato and avocado (R² > 0.862 and 0.977, respectively); the same theoretical model could not represent the sound wave distribution over a half-cut melon. Results of the study were applied in a new probe design for ultrasonic testing of whole fruit.     

考虑任意阻抗壁面条件管腔结构声场特性分析

针对任意阻抗壁面条件一维管腔声学系统建模,对系统动力学特性进行预报。为了满足阻抗边界条件对声压一阶导数连续性要求,管腔声压函数通过在标准傅里叶级数端点位置引入边界光滑辅助多项式进行构建。结合壁面阻抗声学边界和管腔声学Helmholtz控制微分方程得到强形式标准特征值问题,获得相应的声学模态信息。在数值仿真中,通过算例给出各种边界条件下管腔声学模态频率、声压振型、声压和质点振速频率响应曲线,与现有文献中相关结果进行对比,充分验证了本文求解方法的正确性和有效性,证明该方法可对任意阻抗壁面条件管腔系统声学特性进行准确预报。     

Relaxation of sound fields in rooms of diffusely reflecting boundaries and its application in acoustical radiosity simulation

The acoustical radiosity method is a computationally expensive acoustical simulation algorithm that assumes an enclosure with ideal diffuse reflecting boundaries. Miles observed that for such an enclosure, the sound energy decay of every point on the boundaries will gradually converge to exponential manner with a uniform decay rate. Therefore, the ratio of radiosity between every pair of points on the boundaries will converge to a constant, and the radiosity across the boundaries will approach a fixed distribution during the sound decay process, where radiosity is defined as the acoustic power per unit area leaving (or being received by) a point on a boundary. We call this phenomenon the "relaxation" of the sound field. In this paper, we study the relaxation in rooms of different shapes with different boundary absorptions. Criteria based on the relaxation of the sound field are proposed to terminate the costly and unnecessary radiosity computation in the later phase, which can then be replaced by a fast regression step to speed up the acoustical radiosity simulation.     

Using streamlines to visualize acoustic energy flow across boundaries

For spherical waves that radiate from a point source in a homogeneous fluid and propagate across a plane boundary into a dissimilar homogeneous fluid, the acoustic field may differ significantly from the geometric acoustic approximation if either the source or receiver is near the interface (in acoustic wavelengths) or if the stationary phase path is near the critical angle. In such cases, the entire acoustic field must be considered, including inhomogeneous waves associated with diffraction (i.e., those components that vanish with increasing frequency). The energy flow from a continuous-wave monopole point source across the boundary is visualized by tracing acoustic streamlines: those curves whose tangent at every point is parallel to the local acoustic intensity vector, averaged over a wave cycle. It is seen that the acoustic energy flow is not always in line with the "Snell's law" or stationary phase path. Also, plots of acoustic energy streamlines do not display unusual behavior in the vicinity of the critical angle. Finally, it is shown that there exists a law of refraction of acoustic energy streamlines at boundaries with density discontinuities analogous to Snell's law of refraction of ray paths across sound speed discontinuities. Examples include water-to-seabed transmission and water-to-air transmission.     

Near-field scanning in the time domain on a spherical surface--a formulation using the free-space Green's function.

Two formulations for determining the characteristics of an unknown source of acoustic waves using the measurement of its field at its near zone are presented. The measurement in both cases is to be performed on a spherical scan surface which encapsulates the source. The first is for an ideal probe which measures the field at its location. The knowledge of the field is sufficient; its normal derivative is not required. In the second formulation a realistic probe is considered. This time it is required only that the probe has an axially symmetric receiving characteristic. With this formulation, the time functions which characterize the source are found using only the signal at the output of the probe. Both formulations are such that they are not specific to the scan surface radius. Furthermore, they are entirely in the time domain, requiring no inverse Fourier transformations left to be performed.     

Underwater measurement of narrowband sound power and directivity using Supersonic Intensity in Reverberant Environments

A laboratory underwater acoustic measurement technique, Supersonic Intensity in Reverberant Environments (SIRE), is developed analytically and validated experimentally and numerically. Unlike standard free or diffuse field techniques, SIRE enables the measurement of narrowband sound power and directivity in an environment with inexact field conditions. The technique takes advantage of underwater vector sensors, measuring only acoustic pressure and the normal component of particle velocity/acceleration, and supersonic wavenumber filtering in the near field of a source. The result is outward-propagating acoustic waves separated from interfering incoming and/or evanescent waves. The SIRE technique was experimentally applied to monopole and dipole sources and the results are compared with theory and standard methods. SIRE is shown to accurately measure radiated sound power to within the limits of ANSI S12.51 and to accurately measure the directivity indices of simple sources to within ±3 dB. A coupled finite element/boundary element model of a point-driven, thin-walled cylinder is also developed to establish the limitations of the SIRE technique. The model results show that the measurement standoff distance should be less than the reciprocal of the largest wavenumber in the frequency band of interest. Furthermore, the maximum measurement grid spacing must be less than twice the standoff distance.     

圆形活塞声源的有限振幅反射波

本文研究了圆形活塞声源的有限振幅声波的反射。应用像源法计算已产生的谐波本身在边界上的反射,将它们看成是反射边界上振动的新声源所产生的辐射场,再应用弱冲击理论来计算这部分场自己产生的谐波场。在水池中作了二阶谐波的反射实验,反射界面是水池壁。结果表明,谐波声压随距离的平均衰减规律与理论符合得很好。实验还表明,反射谐波场沿纵向距离以及与它相垂直的横断面上有强烈的干涉现象,而纵向相干长度比横向相干长度大一个数量级。通过理论估计,认为这种现象是由于反射壁的有限厚度、它的两个平面之间有一个很小的角度以及发射波束有一定的宽度所造成的。这样估算出来的两个相干长度与实验符合。 关键词：     

Acoustic streaming in an ultrasonic air pump with three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain analysis and comparison to the measurement

The direct finite-difference fluid simulation of acoustic streaming on a fine-meshed three-dimensional model using a graphics processing unit (GPU)-based calculation array is discussed. Airflows are induced by an acoustic traveling wave when an intense sound field is generated in a gap between a bending transducer and a reflector. The calculation results showed good agreement with measurements in a pressure distribution. Several flow vortices were observed near the boundary layer of the reflector and the transducer, which have often been observed near the boundary of acoustic tubes, but have not been observed in previous calculations for this type of ultrasonic air pump.     

Sound transmission across orthotropic laminates with a 3D model

This investigation examines the propagation of elastic waves in orthotropic materials to explain the sound insulation of FRP (Fiber Reinforced Plastics). The mechanical characteristics of an orthotropic material generally require nine independent parameters: three Young’s moduli, three shear moduli and three Poisson’s ratios. Three-dimensional analysis is performed with the elastic wave equations of an orthotropic material. The transfer matrix method which expresses the relationship between stress and velocity is adopted to calculate the sound transmission loss across an orthotropic material. Further, the transfer matrix method can only be calculated under the continuous boundary condition in the interface of each FRP layer. The boundary conditions which are indicated above are velocity and stress. The numerical results are compared with the experimental results. Additionally, along with varying material properties such as Young’s modulus, the acoustical properties of the orthotropic material are explained and discussed later.     

Sound field of a baffled sound source covered by an anisotropic rigid-porous material

A theoretical approach for the sound field of a piston sound source covered by a finite thickness layer of anisotropic rigid-porous material is presented. The formulation is an extension of the method worked out by Amedin et al. [Sound field of a baffled piston source covered by a porous medium layer. J Acoust Soc Am 1995;98(3):1757]. First, in the present study the sound field of a point source is described by cylindrical waves. Then, with the proper boundary conditions, the sound pressure radiated from a piston source covered by a layer of anisotropic porous material can be calculated. The effects of frequency and bulk density of material on the sound propagation in an anisotropic porous material are studied. Finally, the effect of anisotropy is discussed.     

Specification of the acoustical input to the ear at high frequencies

The sound fields that arise in the auditory canals of cats have been examined both experimentally and theoretically. Of particular interest was the spatial variation of sound pressure near the eardrum, where reference probes are typically located. Using a computer controlled data acquisition system, sound pressure was measured between 100 Hz and 33 kHz for constant driver input at 14 different locations in the ear canal of a cat, and the standing wave patterns formed. The shape of the patterns could be predicted quite well above 12 kHz using a theory that requires specification of only the geometry of the ear canal. This theory, an extension of the one-dimensional horn equation, applies to three-dimensional, rigid-walled tubes that have both variable cross section and curvature along their lengths. Large variations of sound pressure along the ear canal and over the surface of the eardrum are found above about 10 kHz. As a consequence it is not possible to define the acoustical input to the ear from sound pressure level measured at any single location. Even in comparative experiments, in which only the constancy of the acoustical input is important, any uncertainty in reference probe location would lead to an uncertainty in sound pressure level when different sets of measurements are compared. This error, calculated for various probe locations and frequencies, is especially large when the probe is near a minimum of the sound field. Spatial variations in pressure can also introduce anomalous features into the measured frequency response of other auditory quantities when eardrum sound pressure is used as a reference. This is illustrated with measurements of the round window cochlear microphonic.     

Direction-dependent spectral properties of cat external ear: new data and cross-species comparisons

Free-field to eardrum transfer functions were measured in anesthetized cats inside an anechoic chamber. Direction-dependent transformations were determined by measurement of sound-pressure levels using a small probe tube microphone surgically implanted in a ventral position near the tympanic membrane. Loudspeaker and probe microphone characteristics were eliminated by subtraction of the signal recorded in the free field with no animal present. Complexities of the transfer function, which include the presence of prominent spectral notches in the 8- to 18-kHz frequency region, are due primarily to the acoustical properties of the pinna. Differential amplification of frequency components within the broadband stimulus occurs as a function of source direction. Spectral features vary systematically with changes in both elevation (EL) and azimuth (AZ). The contrast between a notch and its shoulders is enhanced in the interaural spectral records. Spectral data from single source locations and spatial data for single frequencies at many locations are presented and comparisons with other species are drawn. It is suggested that spectral features in the 8- to 18-kHz region provide some of the necessary spectral information for sound localization and that the contrast in spectral energy between the frequencies at the notch and its shoulders is a potential directional cue.