Validity of linear acoustics for prediction of waveforms caused by sonically moving laser beams

The question is raised as to whether the analysis of the generation of sound by a laser beam moving over a water surface at the sound speed c for an interminable time period requires consideration of nonlinear effects. A principal consideration in this regard is whether the linear acoustics theory predicts a pressure waveform that is bounded in the asymptotic limit when the laser irradiation time is arbitrarily large. It is shown that a bounded asymptotic limit exists when the upper boundary condition corresponds (as is more nearly appropriate) to that of a pressure release surface, but not when it corresponds to that of a rigid surface. The asymptotic solution to the appropriate inhomogeneous wave equation is given exactly for the former case, and it is shown that the highest asymptotic amplitudes, given specified laser power and beam radius a, occur in the limit of a very small light absorption coefficient mu. In this limit, the peak amplitude is independent of mu and occurs at a depth of 0.88/mu. An approximate solution for the pressure waveform at intermediate times establishes that the characteristic time for buildup to the asymptotic limit is of the order of 2.5/(c mu 2a). If this time is substantially shorter than the time that a plane-wave pulse with the asymptotic waveform would take to develop a shock wave, then accumulative nonlinear effects are of minor importance.     

Experimental study of the formation of nonlinear acoustic waves in focused beams

The shock wave formation in focused beams produced by spherical hydroacoustic transducers with different apertures and an operating frequency of 3 MHz, as well as in weakly divergent high-intensity beams of the same frequency, is studied experimentally. The profiles of the received signals are analyzed for different receiving points in the acoustic beam and for different combinations of nonlinear and diffraction effects. It is found that the distortion of the initial waveform (i.e., of the compression and rarefaction phases) is asymmetric. The asymmetry of the wave profile in a focused beam is more pronounced than that in a quasi-plane wave while the asymmetric distortion of the high-frequency carrier causes an asymmetric distortion of the pulse envelope. The angular characteristics of the difference-frequency waves produced by parametric sound radiators are compared using both focused and weakly divergent beams of pump waves. The experiments also show that the appearance of a bubbly phase screen in the region before the point of the shock formation either shifts this point to greater distances or makes the discontinuity formation impossible. Results illustrating the changes that occur in the shock wave characteristics when the bubbly phase screen is placed in the region of the fully developed shock are presented.     

Experimental study of ultrasonic beam sectors for energy conversion into Lamb waves and Rayleigh waves

When a bounded beam is incident on an immersed plate Lamb waves or Rayleigh waves can be generated. Because the amplitude of a bounded beam is not constant along its wave front, a specific beam profile is formed that influences the local efficiency of energy conversion of incident sound into Lamb waves or Rayleigh waves. Understanding this phenomenon is important for ultrasonic immersion experiments of objects because the quality of such experiments highly depends on the amount of energy transmitted into the object. This paper shows by means of experiments based on monochromatic Schlieren photography that the area within the bounded beam responsible for Lamb wave generation differs from that responsible for Rayleigh wave generation. Furthermore it provides experimental verification of an earlier numerical study concerning Rayleigh wave generation.     

Acousto-optic interaction of diverging Gaussian beams in anisotropic media

A strong acousto-optic interaction of bounded light and sound beams of a Gaussian shape is considered for different geometries permitting long-term interaction. The anisotropic spreading of an acoustic beam in the course of its propagation is taken into account. The spectra of light beams are described by a Gaussian-polynomial expression, and a set of differential equations is derived which allows one to describe various geometries of acousto-optic diffraction. It is demonstrated that the transmission function of an acousto-optic cell essentially depends on the ratio between the dimensions of the light and sound beams and on the angle between the propagation direction of the diffracted beam and that of the incident beam. The degree of spreading of the acoustic beam noticeably affects the suppression of the transmission side lobes.     

Sound beams with shockwave pulses

The beam equation for a sound beam in a diffusive medium, called the Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuznetsov (KZK) equation, has a class of solutions, which are power series in the transverse variable with the terms given by a solution of a generalized Burgers’ equation. A free parameter in this generalized Burgers’ equation can be chosen so that the equation describes an N-wave which does not decay. If the beam source has the form of a spherical cap, then a beam with a preserved shock can be prepared. This is done by satisfying an inequality containing the spherical radius, the N-wave pulse duration, the N-wave pulse amplitude, and the sound velocity in the fluid.     

Non-contact sound speed measurement by optical probing of beam deflection due to sound wave

We report a non-contact and non-invasive method of sound speed measurement by optical probing of deflected laser beam due to normally incident degenerated shock wave. In this study the shock wave from an exploding wire was degenerated to an ordinary sound wave at the distance exceeding 0.23 m. Temporal resolution of the deflected beam signal was improved by passing through an adequate electronic high-pass filter, as a result we obtained a better temporal resolution than that of the acoustic pressure detection by PZT transducer in terms of rising time. The spatial resolution was improved by passing the refracted beam signal into the edge of focusing lens to make a larger deflection angle. Sound speed was calculated by monitoring the time of flight of transient deflected signal at the predetermined position. Sound speed has been measured in air, distilled water and acryl, agreed well with the published values. The sound speed measured in the solution of glycerin, magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), and dimethylformamide with various mole fractions also agrees within 3% of relative error with those measured in the present work by ultrasonic pulse echo method. The results suggest that the method proposed is to be reliable and reproducible.     

水下等离子体声源的冲击波负压特性

基于修正的Rayleigh气泡脉动方程对水下等离子体声源放电产生的 强声冲击波的传播过程进行了分析; 利用Euler方程作为控制方程组, 建立了水下等离子体声源的聚束声场模型, 通过仿真计算获得的传播云图对冲击波负压的形成机理进行了直观的理论分析. 结果表明: 经过聚能反射罩反射汇聚得到的聚束波在反射稀疏波和水的惯性作用下, 聚束波周围水域产生了拉伸, 形成负压区, 如果拉伸力大于水的抗拉上限, 就会使得水中形成不连续现象, 即出现空化气泡; 此外聚能罩边缘处产生的衍射波进一步加剧了负压的产生, 边缘衍射波最终与拉伸波叠加, 使冲击波负压达到最大值; 通过对比仿真波形和实验波形, 从而验证和进一步揭示了冲击波负压的形成原因. 研究结果对认识水下冲击波的传播规律和进一步改进等离子体声源的设计具有指导意义. 关键词： 等离子体声源 冲击波负压 聚束声场模型 气泡     

Time-reversed sound beams of finite amplitude.

Numerical simulations based on the nonlinear parabolic wave equation are used to investigate time reversal of sound beams radiated by unfocused and focused sources. Emphasis is placed on nonlinear propagation distortion in the time-reversed beam, and specifically its effect on field reconstruction. Distortion of this kind, due to amplification during time reversal, has been observed in recent experiments [A. P. Brysev et al., Acoust. Phys. 44, 641-650 (1998)]. Effects of diffraction introduced by time-reversal mirrors with finite apertures are also considered. It is shown that even in the presence of shock formation, the ability of time reversal to retarget most of the energy on the source or focal region of the incident beam is quite robust.     

Acoustic characteristics of pulse detonation engine with ellipsoidal reflector

Acoustic characteristics of a pulse detonation engine(PDE) with and without an ellipsoidal reflector are numerically and experimentally investigated. A two-dimensional(2 D) non-splitting unstructured triangular mesh Euler solver based on the space-time conservation element and solution element(CE/SE) method is employed to simulate the flow field of a PDE.The numerical results clearly demonstrate the external flow field of the PDE. The effect of an ellipsoidal reflector on the flow field characteristic near the PDE exit is investigated. The formation process of reflected shock wave and reflected jet shock are reported in detail. An acoustic measurement system is established for the PDE acoustic testing. The experimental results show that the ellipsoidal reflector changes the sound waveform and directivity of PDE sound. The reflected shock wave and reflected jet shock result in two more positive pressure peaks in the sound waveform. The ellipsoidal reflector changes the directivity of PDE sound from 20 to 0. It is found that the peak sound pressure level(PSPL) and overall sound pressure level(OASPL) each obtain an increment when the PDE is installed with a reflector. The maximum relative increase ratio of PSPL and OASPL are obtained at the focus point F2, whose values are 6.1% and 6.84% respectively. The results of the duration of the PDE sound indicate that the reflecting and focusing wave generated by the reflector result in the increment of A duration and B duration before and near focus point F2. Results show that the ellipsoidal reflector has a great influence on the acoustic characteristic of PDE sound. The research is helpful for understanding the influence of an ellipsoidal reflector on the formation and propagation process of PDE sound.     

Characteristics and application of laser-generated acoustic shock waves in air

When a high-power laser beam is focused at a point, the air at the focal point is heated to temperatures of thousands of degrees within several nanoseconds and breaks down. This generates a spark that, in turn, is accompanied by an acoustic shock wave. The acoustic shock waves generated by focussing the beam from a pulsed laser with a 1064 nm wavelength and a power of 800 mJ per pulse have been measured using 1/4″ and 1/8″ B&K microphones. Nonlinear sound levels are observed up to 1.5 m from the laser-induced sparks. Beyond a certain region close to the source, levels are found to decrease in a manner consistent with spherical spreading plus nonlinear hydrodynamic losses. Analysis of the waveforms shows that the acoustic pulses associated with the laser-induced sparks are more repeatable and have higher intensity than those from an electrical spark source. Laser-generated acoustic shock waves are ideal for simulating a blast wave or a sonic boom in the laboratory and for studying the associated propagation effects. To illustrate this application, the propagation of the laser generated shock waves over a series of different hard, rough surfaces has been investigated. The results show the distinctive influences of ground roughness on the propagation of the shock wave.     

Ultrasound beam shift induced by short-beaked common dolphin's(Delphinus delphis) tissues as an attenuating gradient material

To understand sound propagation and beam formation, the physical properties of soft tissues from the biosonar system of odontocetes should be explored. Based on the acoustic impedance distributions of biosonar systems, these processes have been examined via numerical simulations. In this study, the images of a short-beaked common dolphin(Delphinus delphis) were obtained via computed tomography. Then, the dolphin was dissected to extract tissue samples for additional examination. In addition to the speed of sound and density measurements, the acoustic attenuation coefficients of the biosonar system in the forehead were tested. The results revealed that the inner layer of the forehead was characterized using low sound speed, low density, and high attenuation. Acoustic fields and beam patterns were then evaluated by setting acoustic attenuation coefficients at different levels. Sounds propagating along the low-attenuation path had a lesser reduction in amplitude. Beam directivities in near and far fields suggested that changes in attenuation distribution would cause beam patterns to shift. These results indicated the complexity of a dolphin's sonar emission system and helped improve our understanding of sound energy attenuation via studies on the forehead of odontocetes.     

Measurements of harmonic profiles of a bounded ultrasonic beam in a liquid medium

The acoustic field of a bounded finite-amplitude beam is governed by competing mechanisms such as medium non-linearity, interference, and attenuation. An analytic determination of the distribution of sonic energy in the individual harmonic components is often not reliable; consequently an experimental mapping of those harmonic components may be more appropriate. An experimental method is presented here which involves a miniature hydrophone probe which has been frequency calibrated for each harmonic component using a light diffraction technique. Measurements (made across the sound field) of the acoustic amplitude of the first three harmonic components are presented.     

Spatial and temporal study of shock waves generated by laser ablation for Ti target

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Transformation of nonlinear sawtooth waves in a medium with refractive inhomogeneities

Theexact solutions of intensive sawtooth waves and beams in a medium with a sound speed inhomogeneity have been found. It has been shown that the focusing on the medium inhomogeneity is strongly pronounced for a single pulse, resulting in the formation of narrow high-amplitude areas. It has been determined that the refractive infomogeneity can lead to a shift of the amplitude maximum of the initial focused beam and the transformation of the converging beam into a dispersing one.     

Formation of a weakly diverging caustic beam in an underwater sound channel open to the bottom

The paper studies the patterns manifesting themselves in the formation and propagation of caustic and weakly diverging beams using the geometric acoustic approximation and mode theory applied to the simplest model of an underwater sound channel open to the bottom in the form of the bilinear dependence of the square of the refractive index on depth. It is established that when a vertical array emitting a tonal sound signal is located at a certain critical depth, the multimode caustic beam which forms near the reference ray horizontally departing from its center and which predominates in intensity is simultaneously the most weakly diverging beam. It is shown that the reference ray of such a weakly diverging caustic beam corresponds to the smoothest minimum for the dependence of the length of the ray cycle on their angle of departure from the center of the array and to the depth level of revolution at the critical depth characteristic of the given oceanic waveguide.     

Stationary one-dimensional dispersive shock waves

We address shock waves generated upon the interaction of tilted plane waves with negative refractive index defects in defocusing media with linear gain and two-photon absorption. We found that, in contrast to conservative media where one-dimensional dispersive shock waves usually exist only as nonstationary objects expanding away from a defect or generating beam, the competition between gain and two-photon absorption in a dissipative medium results in the formation of localized stationary dispersive shock waves, whose transverse extent may considerably exceed that of the refractive index defect. One-dimensional dispersive shock waves are stable if the defect strength does not exceed a certain critical value.     

Measurement of scaling laws for shock waves in thermal nonlocal media

We are able to detect the details of spatial optical collisionless wave breaking through the high aperture imaging of a beam suffering shock in a fluorescent nonlinear nonlocal thermal medium. This allows us to directly measure how nonlocality and nonlinearity affect the point of shock formation and compare results with numerical simulations.     

Numerical simulation of parametric sound generation and its application to length-limited sound beam

In this study we propose a simulation model for predicting the nonlinear sound propagation of ultrasound beams over a distance of a few hundred wavelengths, and we estimate the beam profile of a parametric array. Using the finite-difference time-domain method based on the Yee algorithm with operator splitting, axisymmetric nonlinear propagation was simulated on the basis of equations for a compressible viscous fluid. The simulation of harmonic generation agreed with the solutions of the Khokhlov–Zabolotskaya–Kuznetsov equation around the sound axis except near the sound source. As an application of the model, we estimated the profiles of length-limited parametric sound beams, which are generated by a pair of parametric sound sources with controlled amplitudes and phases. The simulation indicated a sound beam with a narrow truncated array length and a width of about one-quarter to half that of regular a parametric beam. This result confirms that the control of sound source conditions changes the shape of a parametric beam and can be used to form a torch like low-frequency sound beam.     

Mechanism of laser-induced plasma shock wave evolution in air

A theoretical model is proposed to describe the mechanism of laser-induced plasma shock wave evolution in air. To verify the validity of the theoretical model, an optical beam deflection technique is employed to track the plasma shock wave evolution process. The theoretical model and the experimental signals are found to be in good agreement with each other. It is shown that the laser-induced plasma shock wave undergoes formation, increase and decay processes; the increase and the decay processes of the laser-induced plasma shock wave result from the overlapping of the compression wave and the rarefaction wave, respectively. In addition, the laser-induced plasma shock wave speed and pressure distributions, both a function of distance, are presented.     

On the possibility of suppression of self-focusing of a femtosecond laser pulse during its propagation in a cubic nonlinear medium

Based on a computer simulation, the self-focusing of an axially symmetric beam in a cubic nonlinear medium under the anomalous dispersion conditions is studied with the account for the time dispersion of nonlinear response, which manifests for femtosecond pulses. It is shown that, at a certain value of the parameter of linear modulation of the pulse (or of its chirp), the dispersion of nonlinear response can lead either to the suppression of formation of a nonlinear focus and to the possibility of formation of optical shock waves in time or even to a change in the regime of the beam self-action owing to the action of the local response, i.e., to the change from the self-focusing of the beam to the regime of its defocusing.