A perturbation solution for long wavelength thermoacoustic propagation in dispersions

AbstractIn thermoacoustic scattering the scattered field consists of a propagating acoustic wave together with a non-propagational “thermal” wave of much shorter wavelength. Although the scattered field may be obtained from a Rayleigh expansion, in cases where the particle radius is small compared with the acoustic wave length, these solutions are ill-conditioned. For this reason asymptotic or perturbation solutions are sought. In many situations the radius of the scatter is comparable to the length of the thermal wave. By exploiting the non-propagational character of the thermal field we obtain an asymptotic solution for long acoustic waves that is valid over a wide range of thermal wavelengths, on both sides of the thermal resonance condition. We show that this solution gives excellent agreement with both the full solution of the coupled Helmholtz equations and experimental measurements. This treatment provides a bridge between perturbation theory approximations in the long wavelength limit and high frequency solutions to the thermal field employing the geometric theory of diffraction

Acoustic scattering by a spherical obstacle: modification to the analytical long-wavelength solution for the zero-order coefficient

Classical long wavelength approximate solutions to the scattering of acoustic waves by a spherical liquid particle suspended in a liquid (an emulsion) show small but significant differences from full solutions at very low kca (typically kca 0.1, where kc is the compressional wavenumber and a the particle radius. These differences may be significant in the context of dispersed particle size estimates based on compression wave attenuation measurements. This paper gives an explanation of how these differences arise from approximations based on the significance of terms in the modulus of the complex zero-order partial wave coefficient, A0. It is proposed that a more accurate approximation results from considering the terms in the real and imaginary parts of the coefficient, separately

Acoustic propagation in dispersions in the long wavelength limit

The problem of scattering of ultrasound by particles in the long wavelength limit has a well-established solution in terms of Rayleigh expansions of the scattered fields. However, this solution is ill-conditioned numerically, and recent work has attempted to identify an alternative method. The scattered fields have been expressed as a perturbation expansion in the parameter Ka (the wavenumber multiplied by the particle radius), which is small in the long wavelength region. In the work reported here the problem has been formulated so as to be valid for all values of the thermal wavelength, which varies in order of magnitude, from much smaller to much larger than the particle size in the long wavelength region. Thus the present solution overlaps the limiting solutions for very small thermal wavelength (geometric theory) and very large thermal wavelength (low frequency) previously reported. Close agreement is demonstrated with the established Rayleigh expansion solution