Effects of Strong Diffraction on the Focusing and Scattering of Acoustic Waves.

Abstract

In many wave propagation problems, diffraction is considered to be a second order effect that diffuses the sharp shadows and focal surfaces predicted by ray theory. However, if the frequency is low enough so that the wavelength is comparable to the size of the focusing region, structured fields of significant level can be found in classical shadows and smooth, featureless enhancement can replace the sharp, multiple convergences common at higher frequencies. This study examines the effects of strong diffraction on refractive focusing of acoustic waves. In addition, signal fluctuations caused by perturbations of the refractive index are considered where the spatial extent of a particular perturbation patch is comparable to the wavelength. Consequently, the perturbation mechanism is primarily diffractive also.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1986
Accession Number
ADA171220

Entities

People

  • D. W. Thomson
  • S. T. Mcdaniel
  • T. B. Gabrielson

Organizations

  • Pennsylvania State University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Waves
  • Acoustics
  • Boundary Layer
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Convection
  • Difference Equations
  • Differential Equations
  • Diffraction
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Geometry
  • Partial Differential Equations
  • Two Dimensional
  • Wave Equations
  • Wave Propagation
  • Wind Turbines

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.