Synthesis of a fresnel acoustic lens for acoustic brightness thermometry

The applicability of different types of Fresnel acoustic lenses as antenna array systems in acoustic brightness thermometry of biological tissues is theoretically and numerically analyzed. On the basis of the technical feasibility criterion formulated for these systems, the wavelength suitable for the use in acoustic thermographs with arrays in the form of Fresnel lenses is determined. The focusing properties of different Fresnel lenses are analyzed. A method for constructing Fresnel lenses that is based on varying the focusing distances is proposed. The method provides an opportunity to design trifocal antenna systems with improved focusing properties.     

Experimental study of the potential of multichannel acoustic thermotomography

We describe the results of experimental studies of reconstruction of the temperature profiles from heated sources using the method of acoustic thermometry performed with the help of a multichannel scanning acoustic thermotomograph. The sensitivity of an actual system is estimated. The results of laboratory experiments on the localization of heated objects in the medium with absorption and the results of in vivo experiments on the recording of variation of the acoustic-brightness temperature of human extremities in response to an external thermal effect are presented. Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Russia. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 42, No. 5, pp. 479–484, May 1999.     

Dynamic acoustothermography

Two- and three-dimensional dynamic acoustothermography is carried out in model experiments. The temperature of the model plasticine objects was determined from the measurements of their thermal acoustic radiation in the course of their heating and cooling. The measurements were performed with the use of a planar array of 14 acoustothermometers and two planar arrays perpendicular to each other with 7 acoustothermometers in each of them. The results of measurements were used to plot a dynamic map of the temperature of acoustic brightness and to reconstruct the dynamics of variations in the parameters of the temperature distribution: the spatial coordinates of the heated region, its characteristic size and, maximal temperature. The duration of one measurement cycle was 10 s, the error in determining the position of the center and the size of the heated region did not exceed 1 mm, and the accuracy of the temperature’s calculation was about 1 degree. The results of the study may be used for controlling the temperature in the course of medical procedures that include heating of internal tissues in human patients.     

The directivity pattern of an interferometer for measuring thermal acoustic radiation

The directivity patterns of a pair of piezoelectric transducers for measuring the spatial correlation function of sound pressures produced by sources of thermal acoustic radiation in the megahertz frequency range are calculated. Sources in the form of a heated plane or strip are considered. The signal detection by two circular or rectangular piezoelectric transducers and by focusing transducers is studied. It is demonstrated that, for measuring the correlation function, the piezoelectric transducers must partially overlap. To determine the directivity pattern with a strong dependence on the distance between the heated object and the pair of piezoelectric transducers, focusing piezoelectric transducers should be used. The results obtained offer possibilities for a noninvasive measurement of the absorption coefficient of a medium and also for the realization of the previously proposed [20] passive acoustic thermotomograph, which does not use a priori information on the absorption coefficient of the medium.     

Near-field time-reversal amplification

The spatial resolution of the focused field of a classical time-reversal mirror has a wavelength-order lambda diffraction limit. Previously reported results for subwavelength focus require either the full knowledge of the original source or the evanescent waves in the near field. Here it is shown that subwavelength focusing can be achieved without a priori knowledge of the original probe source. If the field is recorded at a few wavelengths away from the probe source, where the amplitude of the near field is too low for subwavelength focusing, it is shown that the low amplitude near field can be amplified and the spatial resolution improved, using the near-field time reversal (NTR) procedure introduced here. The NTR is performed from the phase of the spatial spectrum of the field recorded on an array around the original probe source using an analytical continuation for the amplitude of the spatial spectrum. Following theory, lambda/20 resolution is experimentally demonstrated with audible acoustic wavefields in the air.     

Statistically optimized near field acoustic holography using an array of pressure-velocity probes

Statistically optimized near field acoustic holography (SONAH) differs from conventional near field acoustic holography (NAH) by avoiding spatial Fourier transforms; the processing is done directly in the spatial domain. The main advantage of SONAH compared with NAH is that the usual requirement of a measurement aperture that extends well beyond the source can be relaxed. Both NAH and SONAH are based on the assumption that all sources are on one side of the measurement plane whereas the other side is source free. An extension of the SONAH procedure based on measurement with a double layer array of pressure microphones has been suggested. The double layer technique makes it possible to distinguish between sources on the two sides of the array and thus suppress the influence of extraneous noise coming from the "wrong" side. It has also recently been demonstrated that there are significant advantages in NAH based on an array of acoustic particle velocity transducers (in a single layer) compared with NAH based on an array of pressure microphones. This investigation combines the two ideas and examines SONAH based on an array of pressure-velocity intensity probes through computer simulations as well as experimentally.     

Wideband focused transducer array for optoacoustic tomography

The calculation procedure of the parameters of a multielement transducer array for the optoacoustic tomography of biological objects with high spatial resolution values is proposed. A multielement transducer with given spatial resolution values in three dimensions has been developed based on the proposed procedure for the early detection of breast cancer. The transducer array consists of a set of 8 linear PVDF piezoelectric films located on a plane and a focusing cylindrical acoustic lens. A map of the transducer’s focal area and point spread function have been measured using the constructed transducer array. Spatial resolutions of the transducer array obtained experimentally are in agreement with their calculated values.     

Formation,propagation, and focusing of acoustic beams in oceanic waveguides. The quasi-optics approximation

Using the WKB approximation and assuming that the spatial spectrum of modes excited by a vertical array is sufficiently narrow, a quasi-optical theory is developed to describe the fundamental regularities manifesting themselves in the formation, propagation, and focusing of multimode acoustic beams in oceanic waveguides. Functional dependences on the parameters of both the transmitting array and the oceanic waveguide are obtained for horizontal distances at which ordinary beams form refraction focusing zones. Conditions ensuring the formation of a beam with the minimum wave front divergence are formulated for the distribution of the source excitation factor over the array aperture.     

Time reversal in ultrasound focusing transmitters and receivers

The ability of a single-channel time reversal acoustic systems to focus and receive ultrasound radiation is considered. The basic element of these systems is a liquid-filled acoustic reverberator. Two types of the reverberators have been experimentally studied; one of them is a thin-wall cylindrical balloon used in ultrasound catheters for treatment of cardiac fibrillation, and the other consists of plane-parallel foil layers. It is demonstrated that such systems can effectively focus ultrasound using only one radiation channel. Random deformation of balloon walls and foil layers leads to a noticeable improvement of focusing quality and helps to overcome the limitations imposed by a spatial symmetry of a system. The use of a binary radiation mode increases the focal field intensity as compared to the conventional mode. The possibility of spatial localization of external sources with the use of the time reversal focusing system as a receiver is demonstrated.     

Active control of passive acoustic fields: passive synthetic aperture/Doppler beamforming with data from an autonomous vehicle

The maneuverability of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) equipped with hull-mounted arrays provides the opportunity to actively modify received acoustic fields to optimize extraction of information. This paper uses ocean acoustic data collected by an AUV-mounted two-dimensional hydrophone array, with overall dimension one-tenth wavelength at 200-500 Hz, to demonstrate aspects of this control through vehicle motion. Source localization is performed using Doppler shifts measured at a set of receiver velocities by both single elements and a physical array. Results show that a source in the presence of a 10-dB higher-level interferer having exactly the same frequency content (as measured by a stationary receiver) is properly localized and that white-noise-constrained adaptive beamforming applied to the physical aperture data in combination with Doppler beamforming provides greater spatial resolution than physical-aperture-alone beamforming and significantly lower sidelobes than single element Doppler beamforming. A new broadband beamformer that adjusts for variations in vehicle velocity on a sample by sample basis is demonstrated with data collected during a high-acceleration maneuver. The importance of including the cost of energy expenditure in determining optimal vehicle motion is demonstrated through simulation, further illustrating how the vehicle characteristics are an integral part of the signal/array processing structure.     

Surface reverberation at sound field focusing in shallow water

A numerical experiment is carried out to study the long-range surface reverberation in the presence of intense surface waves for the case of using vertical transmitting arrays providing sound field focusing at different depths. To focus the field, a phase conjugation of acoustic waves from a probe source positioned at the focusing point is used. It is demonstrated that surface waves considerably affect the focusing quality at a distance of several tens of kilometers from the transmitting array. This prevents the efficient suppression of long-range reverberation by increasing the focusing depth.     

Experimental verification of subwavelength acoustic focusing using a near-field array of closely spaced elements

A linear array of closely spaced sound transducers is presented that can produce a subwavelength-focused intensity profile at a distance of a quarter wavelength. This work is related to research on super-resolution using metamaterials in both the acoustic and optical domains. It is designed using the principle of shifted beams, a near-field antenna array theory developed for the subwavelength focusing of electromagnetic waves. Once the spatial sound pattern is characterized for each source, the optimal weights for a minimum beam width can be calculated. An experiment operating at 4 kHz was able to successfully construct a super-focused beam.     

基于声全息方法和双目视觉实现运动声源声场可视化

运动声源声场的可视化是一种重要的运动声源定位的技术手段,利用双目视觉测量技术实现运动声源声场空间的自动测量,自动确定运动声源表面的空间位置,针对声源表面,利用传声器阵列,基于声全息方法实现运动声源声场的重建,建立视频图像与声场的空间映射,并建立视频与声场之间的时序,实现实景视频图像与声场重建结果的融合,可以自动生成声源运动过程的视频。基于该方法所开发了一套试验测量系统,对运动声源的测量试验结果表明,该方法可以有效实现运动声源的视频可视化,使人可以直接从视频中看到声源及其变化过程,使声源的定位和识别变得更加简单。      

Imaging with unfocused regions of focused ultrasound beams

This article gives an analytical, computational, and experimental treatment of the spatial resolution encoded in unfocused regions of focused ultrasound beams. This topic is important in diagnostic ultrasound since ultrasound array systems are limited to a single transmit focal point per acoustic transmission, hence there is a loss of spatial resolution away from the transmit focus, even with the use of dynamic receive focusing. It is demonstrated that the spatial bandwidth of a Gaussian-apodized beam is approximately constant with depth, which means that there is just as much encoded spatial resolution away from the transmit focus as there is in the focal region. The practical application of this principle is discussed, an algorithm for retrospectively focusing signals from unfocused regions of fixed-focus beams is presented, and a quantitative comparison between the authors' methods and dynamic-receive beamforming is provided.     

基于压缩感知的矢量阵聚焦定位方法

本文针对噪声源近场定位识别问题,利用声源分布在空间域具有稀疏性,在压缩感知理论框架下建立了新体系下的矢量阵聚焦波束形成方法,用于解决同频相干声源的定位识别问题.新方法可在小快拍下准确获得噪声源的空间位置,且不损失对噪声源贡献相对大小的评价能力.通过详细的理论推导、仿真分析和试验验证,证明了基于压缩感知的矢量阵聚焦定位新方法本质上实现了l1范数正则化求解下的波形恢复和空间谱估计,因此具有较高的定位精度,较强的相干声源分辨能力、准确的声源贡献相对大小评价能力以及较高的背景压制能力,可应用于水下复杂噪声源的定位识别.     

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。      

Examination of time-reversal acoustics in shallow water and applications to noncoherent underwater communications

The shallow water acoustic communication channel is characterized by strong signal degradation caused by multipath propagation and high spatial and temporal variability of the channel conditions. At the receiver, multipath propagation causes intersymbol interference and is considered the most important of the channel distortions. This paper examines the application of time-reversal acoustic (TRA) arrays, i.e., phase-conjugated arrays (PCAs), that generate a spatio-temporal focus of acoustic energy at the receiver location, eliminating distortions introduced by channel propagation. This technique is self-adaptive and automatically compensates for environmental effects and array imperfections without the need to explicitly characterize the environment. An attempt is made to characterize the influences of a PCA design on its focusing properties with particular attention given to applications in noncoherent underwater acoustic communication systems. Due to the PCA spatial diversity focusing properties, PC arrays may have an important role in an acoustic local area network. Each array is able to simultaneously transmit different messages that will focus only at the destination receiver node.     

基于蒙特卡罗法的实时空间三维声源定位

构建了一个基于四个声音传感器的信号时延采集系统,根据采集系统得到的三个时间差和传感器的响应顺序,提出了一种基于蒙特卡罗法实时空间的三维声源定位算法.该算法通过三维声音定位的非线性方程,构建一个三维模函数,通过寻找空间全局收敛点,并根据公差容限进行变步长搜索,准确快速地计算出声源的位置.     

Underwater hybrid near-field acoustical holography based on the measurement of vector hydrophone array

Hybrid near-field acoustical holography(NAH) is developed for reconstructing acoustic radiation from a cylindrical source in a complex underwater environment. In hybrid NAH,we combine statistically optimized near-field acoustical holography(SONAH) and broadband acoustical holography from intensity measurements(BAHIM) to reconstruct the underwater cylindrical source field. First,the BAHIM is utilized to regenerate as much acoustic pressures on the hologram surface as necessary,and then the acoustic pressures are taken as input to the formulation implemented numerically by SONAH. The main advantages of this technology are that the complex pressure on the hologram surface can be reconstructed without reference signal,and the measurement array can be smaller than the source,thus the practicability and efficiency of this technology are greatly enhanced. Numerical examples of a cylindrical source are demonstrated. Test results show that hybrid NAH can yield a more accurate reconstruction than conventional NAH. Then,an experiment has been carried out with a vector hydrophone array. The experimental results show the advantage of hybrid NAH in the reconstruction of an acoustic field and the feasibility of using a vector hydrophone array in an underwater NAH measurement,as well as the identification and localization of noise sources.     

一种新的超声表面波测温方法研究

在材料科学和材料工程领域,对受热材料温度分布测量的需求一直在持续增长。这主要是因为对于材料的各种特性和行为,温度都是其重要参量。本文设计一种新的声表面波测量方法测量在加热或冷却过程中的材料表面的温度梯度。这种方法涉及到超声波回波测量和导热反问题的分析方法来得到材料中沿超声传播方向的一维温度场分布。为了证明方法的可行性,文章使用铝板进行了实验并得到了准确的材料表面温度场分布图像。超声测温技术将作为一种新型的热点技术,将有很大潜力被用在工业材料高温操作过程中的表面温度场成像。