ACOUSTICS & ULTRASONIC
ASSOC. PROF. SAMEH A. NAPOLEON
SOUND
CHAPTER 1
REFERENCES
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-540-92723-5
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2F978-3-540-92723-5.pdf
THE WAVE EQUATION
• We use the expression sound waves to characterize wave motion in gases and fluids, such as
air or water.
• Such waves are longitudinal
• Longitudinal waves are characterized by the oscillation of the wave motion being in the
direction of the wave propagation.
• The direction of the wave propagation is determined by the geometrical and vibrational
properties of the radiating mechanical system as well as by the surrounding fluid and its
boundaries.
• The wave equation is derived from using three equations that each describes a particular
property of the fluid.
• These equations are the equation of motion, the equation of continuity, and an equation
describing the thermodynamic properties of the medium.
• In the derivation of the wave equation, we assume the gas to be elastic and continuous.
• Acoustic waves are characterized by quantities such as:
• Sound pressure is the dynamic excess pressure over the atmospheric static pressure in a small volume.
• Particle velocity is the average velocity of the gas molecules in a small volume.
• The assumptions
• The medium is considered to be at rest.
• The sound pressure must be small enough compared to the static pressure for the medium to be
• considered linear.
• In practice, the maximum sound pressure is assumed to be less than 0.001 times the static pressure.
• There can be no heat exchange within the medium; that is, no heat flows into or away from the volume element.
• There should be no losses in the medium. The medium does not exhibit viscosity or other phenomena leading to
damping.
• The medium is homogenous—the effects of gravitation are not considered.
THE EQUATION OF CONTINUITY
• expresses the relationship between density changes and volume changes in a
volume element.
• Assume that the volume element is Vo, which is trapped between the two
planes at x and x + dx
THE EQUATION OF MOTION
• We denote
the static
pressure by
and the
sound
pressure by
.
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
THE WAVE EQUATION
SOLUTIONS TO THE WAVE EQUATION
STATIONARY, ONE-DIMENSIONAL SOLUTIONS FOR
CARTESIAN COORDINATES
The general solution to the wave equation in the one-dimensional case also has to feature a wave
propagating in the direction of negative x and is written as:
STATIONARY, ONE-DIMENSIONAL SOLUTIONS FOR
SPHERICAL COORDINATES
A loudspeaker using a
dodecahedron
arrangement of drivers to
approximate the
omnidirectional sound
radiation characteristics
of a monopole.
(Photo by Mendel
Kleiner.)
IMPEDANCE
Both impedance and mobility are generally frequency-dependent, complex quantities, characterized
by a real and an imaginary part, or, if we prefer, by magnitude and phase.
The real part of impedance is usually called resistance, and its imaginary part is called reactance.
DEFINITIONS OF IMPEDANCE USED IN ACOUSTICS
CHARACTERISTIC AND SOUND FIELD IMPEDANCES
IN A PLANE WAVE
For near field
For far field
SOUND INTENSITY
• We know for an infinite plane wave in the positive x-direction that sound pressure and
particle velocity will be in-phase, which results in:
SOUND POWER
PROPAGATION LOSSES
REFLECTION AND TRANSMISSION AT
BOUNDARIES
NORMAL SOUND INCIDENCE
OBLIQUE SOUND INCIDENCE
OBLIQUE SOUND INCIDENCE ON A PLANE
IMPEDANCE BOUNDARY.
NORMAL REACTION
Since the reflection leads to the wave vector component in the x-direction of the reflected wave changing
sign, one can write the resulting sound field in medium 1, using superposition, as:
• Remember that in the case of normal reaction studied now, the particle velocity in medium
2 is only in the x-direction; there is no propagation in the y-direction.
RAYLEIGH TYPE OF REFLECTION
• In this case, the boundary condition with regard to the propagation direction is given by
Snell’s law.
