Perturbation Analysis on Guided Waves in a Fluid-Filled Borehole Surrounded by a Cubic Crystal Anisotropic Medium

The perturbation method is employed to analyse the guided waves in a borehole surrounded by a cubic crystal medium for the first time. The cubic crystal medium is regarded as a reference unperturbed isotropic state added to the perturbation. The dispersion characteristics of Stoneley wave, pseudo-Rayleigh wave, flexural wave, and screw wave are investigated in detail. It is found that dispersion of the guided waves excited by monopole and dipole sources does not depend on the azimuth of the source, whereas the dispersion of screw wave excited by quadrupole source is significantly related to the azimuth of the source. Screw waves propagated along different azimuth in the borehole can be split. This is different from screw waves in transversely isotropic media （hexagonal crystal）, which have been widely studied.     

Laser Generation of Surface Waves on Cylinder with a Slow Coating

An analytical model of acoustic field excited by a pulsed-laser line source on a coated cylinder is presented. Surface wave dispersive behaviours for a cylinder with a slow coating are analysed and compared with that of a bare cylinder. Based on this analysis, the laser-generated transient response of the perturbed Rayleigh wave and the higher modes of steel cylinder with a zinc coating are calculated from the model using residue theory and FFT technique. The theoretical result from the superposed waveform of the perturbed Rayleigh wave and higher modes agree well with the waveform obtained in experiment. The results show that the model and numerical method provide a useful technique for quantitatively characterizing coating parameters of coated cylinder by the laser generated surface waves.     

Guided Waves in a Multi-Layered Cylindrical Elastic Solid Medium

We investigate the guided waves in a multi-layered cylindrical elastic solid medium. The dispersion function of guided waves is usually complex and the dispersion curves of all modes are not conveniently obtained. Here we present an effective method to obtain the dispersion curves of all modes. First, the dispersion function of the guided waves is transformed into a real function. The dispersion curves are then calculated for all the modes of the guided waves by the bisection method. The modes with the orders n = 0, 1, and 2 are analysed in two- and three-layer media. The existence condition of Stoneley wave is discussed. The modes of the guided waves are also investigated in a two-layer medium, in which the velocity of shear wave in the outer layer is less than that in the inner layer.     

Coupling of cavity modes and guiding modes in two-dimensional phononic crystals

Cavity modes for the single-cavity and the double-cavities in two-dimensional phononic crystal are studied by using a plane waves expansion supercell method. We show that the single-cavity behaves like an atom while the double-cavities behave like a molecule. Couplings of cavity modes with the waveguide modes are investigated for typical configurations. Suitably designed waveguides with introduced cavities might be used as acoustic filter in waveguide applications.     

Ultrasonic field modeling for immersed components using Gaussian beam superposition

The Gaussian beam (GB) superposition approach can be applied to model ultrasound propagation in complex-structured materials and components. In this article, progress made in extending and applying the Gaussian beam superposition technique to model the beam fields generated by transducers with flat and focused rectangular apertures as well as with circular focused apertures is addressed. The refraction of transducer beam fields through curved surfaces is illustrated by calculation results for beam fields generated in curved components during immersion testing. In particular, the following developments are put forward: (i) the use of individually determined sets of GBs to model transducer beam fields with a number of less than ten beams; (ii) the application of the GB representation of rectangular transducers to focusing probes, as well as to the problem of transmission through interfaces; and (iii) computationally efficient transient modeling by superposition of ‘temporally limited’ GBs.     

Thickness Determination for a Two-Layered Composite of a Film and a Plate by Low-Frequency Ultrasound

We present an ultrasonic method for determining the thickness of a composite consisting of a soft thin film attached to a hard plate substrate, by resonance spectra in the low frequency region, The interrogating waves can be incident only to the two-layered composite from the substrate side. The reflection spectra are obtained by FFT analysis of the compressive pulsed echoes from the composite, and the thicknesses of the film and the substrate are simultaneously inversed by the simulated annealing method from the resonant frequencies knowing other acoustical parameters in prior. The sensitivity of the method to individual thickness, its convergence and stability against experimental noises are studied, Experiment with interrogating wavelength 4 times larger than the film thickness in a sample of a polymer film （0.054mm） on an aluminium plate （6.24mm） verifies the validity of the method. The average relative errors in the measurement of the thicknesses of the film and the substrate are found to be -4.1% and -0.62%, respectively.     

Phononic band structure in a two-dimensional hybrid triangular graphite lattice

The propagation of acoustic wave in a two-dimensional phononic crystal of a hybrid triangular graphite array is investigated by the plane wave expansion (PWE) method. Our numerical results show that the location and width of the band gaps can be tuned by altering the radii of scatters at different positions.     

Symmetric and Anti-Symmetric Lamb Waves in a Two-Dimensional Phononic Crystal Plate

It is weft known that Lamb waves in a plate with a mirror plane can be separated into two uncoupled sets： symmetric and anti-symmetric modes. Based on this property, we present a revised plane wave expansion method （PWE） to calculate the band structure of a phononie crystal （PC） plate with a mirror plane. The developed PWE method can be used to calculate the band structure of symmetric and anti-symmetric modes separately, by which the depending relationship between the partial acoustic band gap （PABG）, which belongs to the symmetric and anti-symmetric modes alternatively, and the position of the scatterers can be determined. As an example of its application, the band structure of the Lamb modes in a two-dimensional PC plate with two layers of void circular inclusions is investigated. The results show that the band structure for the symmetric and anti-symmetric modes can be changed by the position of the scatterers drastically, and larger PABGs will be opened when the scatterers are inserted into the area of the plate, where the elastic potential energy is concentrated.     

Homogenization of Three-Dimensional Periodic Solid-Solid Elastic Composites

We develop an approach to homogenize three-dimensional periodic solid-solid elastic composites with cubic lattice at low frequencies, by using plane wave expansion and perturbation theory with respect to the long wavelength limit. Based on the fact that the two shear waves propagating along lattice axis are degenerated, we derive formulae for effective velocities parallel and normal to the lattice axis, from which three independent effective elastic moduli are calculated, respectively. Theoretical results, which take into account the multiple scattering and the structure of the periodic medium, are in good agreement with the previous isotropic theory at high-symmetry directions.     

The influence of the micro-topology on the phononic band gaps in 2D porous phononic crystals

The phononic band structures of two-dimensional metal porous phononic crystals consisting of different lattices (the lattice structures transformed from square to triangle), and pores of various shapes (circle, square, and triangle) and sizes are studied numerically by using Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) scheme. It is found that for x-y mode waves, the absolute phononic band gaps (PBGs) rely more on the pore shapes. For triangular pores, the PBG is opening in the whole process of the lattice transformation, and for circular ones, the PBG is closed after a certain lattice structure. No PBG forms in the crystals with square pores. The PBG can be varied by adjusting the size of the pores. But a critical porosity exists for the opening of the PBG.     

Impedance-Matched Reduced Acoustic Cloaking with Realizable Mass and Its Layered Design

We present an impedance-matched reduced version of acoustic cloaking whose mass is in a reasonable range. A layered cloak design with isotropic material is also proposed for the reduced cloak. Numerical calculations from the transfer matrix methods show that the present layered cloak can reduce the scattering of an air cylinder substantially.     

Tri-component phononic crystals for underwater anechoic coatings

Localized resonance in phononic crystal, composed of three-dimensional arrays of composite units, has been discovered recently. The composite unit is a high-density sphere coated by soft silicon rubber. In this Letter, the absorptive properties induced by the localized resonance are systemically investigated. The mode conversions during the Mie scattering of a single coated lead sphere in unbounded epoxy are analyzed by referring the elements of the scattering matrix. Then the anechoic properties of a slab containing a plane of such composite scatterers are investigated with the multiple-scattering method by accounting the effects of the multiple scattering and the viscous dissipation. The results show that the longitudinal to transverse mode conversion nearby the locally resonant region is an effective way to enhance the anechoic performance of the finite slab of phononic crystal. Then, the influences of the viscoelasticity of the silicon rubber and the coating thickness on the acoustic properties of the finite slab are investigated for anechoic optimization. Finally, we synthetically consider the destructive scattering in the finite slab of phononic crystal and the backing, and design an anechoic slab composed of bi-layer coated spheres. The results show that the most of the incident energy is absorbed at the desired frequency band.     

Extraordinary Resonant Scattering in Imperfect Acoustic Cloak

We present a systematic study on the extraordinary resonant scattering in imperfect acoustic cloak by means of acoustic scattering theory. Analysis results demonstrate that the resonances are inevitable due to the perturbation to the ideal clo~k, and specific resonance modes are excited by specific order waves. The strength of resonance is determined by the magnitude of perturbation and each order wave＇s sensitivity to the perturbation. Further studies reveal the unique scattering characters of different resonance modes.     

Vibro-acoustography imaging of permanent prostate brachytherapy seeds in an excised human prostate - Preliminary results and technical feasibility

Objective:

The objective in this work is to investigate the feasibility of using a new imaging tool called vibro-acoustography (VA) as a means of permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) seed localization to facilitate post-implant dosimetry (PID).

Methods and materials:

Twelve OncoSeed (standard) and eleven EchoSeed (echogenic) dummy seeds were implanted in a human cadaver prostate. Seventeen seeds remained after radical retropubic prostatectomy. VA imaging was conducted on the prostate that was cast in a gel phantom and placed in a tank of degassed water. 2-D magnitude and phase VA image slices were obtained at different depths within the prostate showing location and orientation of the seeds.

Results:

VA demonstrates that twelve of seventeen (71%) seeds implanted were visible in the VA image, and the remainder were obscured by intra-prostatic calcifications. Moreover, it is shown here that VA is capable of imaging and locating PPB seeds within the prostate independent of seed orientation, and the resulting images are speckle free.

Conclusion:

The results presented in this research show that VA allows seed detection within a human prostate regardless of their orientation, as well as imaging intra-prostatic calcifications.     

A computer simulation study of imaging flexural inhomogeneities using plate-wave diffraction tomography

This paper investigates the feasibility of plate-wave diffraction tomography for the reconstruction of flexural inhomogeneities in plates using the results of computer simulation studies. The numerical implementation of the fundamental reconstruction algorithm, which has recently been developed by Wang and Rose [C.H. Wang, L.R.F. Rose, Plate-wave diffraction tomography for structural health monitoring, Rev. Quant. Nondestr. Eval. 22 (2003) 1615-1622] is investigated addressing the essential effects of applying the discrete form of the Fourier diffraction theorem for solving the inverse problem as discussed by Kak and Slaney [A.C. Kak, M. Slaney, Principles of Computerized Tomographic Imaging, IEEE Press, New York, 1988] for the acoustic case, viz. diffraction limited sensitivity, influence of weak scatterer assumption, damage location and scatter field data processing in time and Fourier space as well as experimental limitations such as finite receiver length and limited views. The feasibility of the imaging technique is investigated for cylindrical inhomogeneities of various severities and relative position within the interrogation space and a normal incident interrogation configuration. The results show that plate-wave diffraction tomography enables the quantitative reconstruction of location, size and severity of plate damage with excellent sensitivity and offers the potential for detecting corrosion thinning, disbonds and delamination damage in structural integrity management applications.     

In vitro comparative study of vibro-acoustography versus pulse-echo ultrasound in imaging permanent prostate brachytherapy seeds

Background

Permanent prostate brachytherapy (PPB) is a common treatment for early stage prostate cancer. While the modern approach using trans-rectal ultrasound guidance has demonstrated excellent outcome, the efficacy of PPB depends on achieving complete radiation dose coverage of the prostate by obtaining a proper radiation source (seed) distribution. Currently, brachytherapy seed placement is guided by trans-rectal ultrasound imaging and fluoroscopy. A significant percentage of seeds are not detected by trans-rectal ultrasound because certain seed orientations are invisible making accurate intra-operative feedback of radiation dosimetry very difficult, if not impossible. Therefore, intra-operative correction of suboptimal seed distributions cannot easily be done with current methods. Vibro-acoustography (VA) is an imaging modality that is capable of imaging solids at any orientation, and the resulting images are speckle free.

Objective and methods

The purpose of this study is to compare the capabilities of VA and pulse-echo ultrasound in imaging PPB seeds at various angles and show the sensitivity of detection to seed orientation. In the VA experiment, two intersecting ultrasound beams driven at f₁ = 3.00 MHz and f₂ = 3.020 MHz respectively were focused on the seeds attached to a latex membrane while the amplitude of the acoustic emission produced at the difference frequency 20 kHz was detected by a low frequency hydrophone.

Results

Finite element simulations and results of experiments conducted under well-controlled conditions in a water tank on a series of seeds indicate that the seeds can be detected at any orientation with VA, whereas pulse-echo ultrasound is very sensitive to the seed orientation.

Conclusion

It is concluded that vibro-acoustography is superior to pulse-echo ultrasound for detection of PPB seeds.     

Estimation of ultrasound attenuation and dispersion using short time Fourier transform

Determination of the acoustic attenuation and dispersion has important applications in ultrasound tissue characterization and non-destructive material testing. Current signal processing methods Fourier transform of ultrasound signals to get the spectra of amplitude and phase to estimate respectively the attenuation and dispersion of a given medium. These methods are frequency domain method and obsessed with ambiguity issue in the phase unwrapping calculation. Conventional ultrasound velocity measuring method detects the time of arrival of a pulse (or echo) signal, which is a time domain method to compute group velocity (not phase velocity). This paper presents a novel approach based on the short time Fourier transform (STFT)--a time-frequency analysis, to estimate the ultrasonic dispersion and attenuation. Only the amplitude information of the pulse-signal spectra is used. Based on the time-frequency presentation, the attenuation coefficient of the signal is obtained by computing the amplitude decay of pulse spectrum in time domain, while phase velocities are obtained based on the "time-of-flight" (TOF) of the mono frequency component of the pulse signals. As a result, we eliminate the ambiguity issue in phase angle calculation. Furthermore, the proposed method makes the phase velocity pedagogically intuitive for novice users. The paper presents experiments to evaluate demonstrate the performance of the proposed method.     

Wave scattering by many small particles embedded in a medium

Theory of wave scattering by many small bodies is developed under various assumptions concerning the ratio , where a is the characteristic dimension of a small body and d is the distance between neighboring bodies d=O(aκ₁), 0<κ₁<1. On the boundary Sm of every small body an impedance-type condition is assumed on Sm, 1?m?M, ζm=hma−κ, 0<κ, hm are constants independent of a. The behavior of the field in the region in which M=M(a)?1 small particles are embedded is studied as a→0 and M(a)→∞. Formulas for the refraction coefficient of the limiting medium are derived under the assumptions: (a) κ₁=(2−κ)/3, 0<κ?1, and (b) κ₁=1/3, κ>1. A method for creating materials with a desired refraction coefficient is proposed and justified theoretically on the basis of the above results.     

Sound Absorption of Locally Resonant Sonic Materials

The acoustic properties of locally resonant sonic materials with viscosity are theoretically investigated by using the multiple-scattering approach. We find that the absorption of a two-layer slab dominates the wave attenuation in the resonant frequency region under the condition of moderate or high viscous level. The fundamental mechanism operating in local resonance for absorption is investigated for the viability by the mode translation in the scattering process of a single scatterer. Finally the absorption performance in a multi-layer system is discussed.