Kwan Siu-fan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong. / Bibliography: leaves 80-81.

Rapid developments in the search for means to provide detailed seabed mapping has led to the introduction of the Bathymetric Side Scan Profiling Sonar (BSSPS) System, which uses a two-transducer interferometer to map seabed features. Error in the resolved relative phase of the BSSPS system has crippled its application for resolving very detailed seabed features. This present work is concerned with the study, analysis and evaluation of the sources contributing to the system relative-phase error. Most of the sources of noise contributing to the relative-phase error can be prevented or reduced by good instrumentation and careful design, except the glint and the newly introduced source of noise, sliding ladder (SL). These sources were found to be unavoidable and cannot be eliminated, being part of the backscattered signal. Glint is only influenced by the angle of incidence, y, transducer separation, d, and pulse duration t. Sliding ladder noise is influenced by the grazing angle, e, (angle of reception relative to the boresight), pulse duration, t, and transducer separation, d. Reducing t has the effect of slightly reducing the relative-phase error due to glint, but greatly increasing it due to SL. Alternatively, reducing d has the effect of reducing the error due to both glint and SL, but it degrades the system resolving power. The choice of d and t is decided by the type of application and required resolution. This work also develops the design and implementation of the inverse tan method used to separate the relative-phase and envelope of the two received signals. The inverse tan method for resolving the relative phase (complex signal processor) is found to be simple, easy to implement, and accurate. In order to study the contribution and effect of the individual sources of noise on the relative-phase error, the BSSPS system was simulated. The designed computer model proved to be flexible, reliable and very useful. It was extensively used to test theoretical analysis as well as to achieve individual and collective glint and SL effects. Also the system was employed to test the influence of some of the system parameters on the sources of noise. Using the BSSPS simulated system we were able to provide some valuable guidelines for the sonar design and application concerning resolution, optimum mapped distance and an approach to reduce the relative-phase error (averaging). Applications of the present findings are not restricted to sonar systems, but would be just as useful to similar radar applications.

The original work presented in this thesis pertains to the design and characterisation of resonant-cavity-based acoustic metamaterials, with a focus on airborne sound. There are five separate experimental chapters, each with a unique approach to the design of periodic structures that can support and manipulate air-bound acoustic surface waves via diffractive coupling between resonant-cavities. The first two chapters concern measurement of the acoustic transmission though various kinds of periodic slit-arrays, whilst the latter three chapters utilise a near-field imaging technique to directly record and characterise the dispersion of trapped acoustic surface waves. The first experimental chapter investigates the effect that thermodynamic boundary layers have on the Fabry-Perot-like cavity resonances that are so often utilised in acoustic metamaterial design. At audio frequencies, these boundary layers have a decay length that is typically more than two orders of magnitude smaller than the width of the resonating slit-cavities, hence it may naively be assumed that their effect can be ignored. However, by studying in detail the effect that reducing slit-cavity width has on the frequency of the measured cavity-resonance, for both a single slit cavity and a slit-cavity array, it is found that these boundary layer effects become significant on a far larger scale than their characteristic thickness. This is manifested in the form of a reduction in the resonant frequency as the slit-width is narrowed. Significant attenuation of the resonance and a 5% reduction in the effective speed of sound through the cavity is measured when the boundary layers form only 5% of the total width of each slit. Hence, it is both shown that the prevalent loss free treatment of acoustic slit-cavities is unrealistic, and that one may control the effective speed of sound through the slit-cavities with a simple change in slit-width. The second chapter explores the effect of ‘compound’ grating structure on trapped acoustic surface waves, a compound grating having a basis comprised of more than one resonating element. The angle dependent acoustic transmission spectra of four types of aluminium slit-array are recorded, and for the compound gratings, it is found that sharp dips appear in the spectra that result from the excitation of a ‘phase-resonance’. This occurs as new degrees-of-freedom available to the acoustic near-field allow the fields of adjacent cavities within a unit-cell to be both out-of-phase and strongly enhanced. By mapping the transmission spectra as a function of in-plane wavevector, the dispersions of the modes supported by each sample are determined. Hence, the origin of the phase-resonant features may be described as acoustic surface waves that have been band-folded back into the radiative regime via diffraction from higher in-plane wavevectors than possible on a simple grating. One of the samples is then optimised via numerical methods that account for thermodynamic boundary layer attenuation, resulting in the excitation of a sharp, deep transmission minimum in a broad maximum that may be useful in the design of an acoustic filter. The third chapter introduces the near-field imaging technique that can be utilised to directly characterise acoustic surface waves, via spatial fast Fourier transform algorithms of high-resolution pressure field maps. The acoustic response of a square-lattice open-ended hole array is thus characterised. It is found that over a narrow frequency band, the lattice symmetry causes the acoustic surface power flow to be channelled into specific, predictable directions, forming ‘beams’ with a well defined width. In chapter four, the existence of the ‘acoustic line mode’ is demonstrated, a type of acoustic surface wave that may be supported by a simple line of open-ended hole cavities. The near-field imagine technique is again used to extract the mode dispersion. This acoustic line mode may be readily manipulated, demonstrated by arrangement of the line of holes into the shape of a ring. The existence of this type of mode offers a great deal of potential for the control of acoustic energy. Chapter five explores the effect of ‘glide-symmetry’ on a pair of acoustic line modes arranged side-by-side. A control sample not possessing glide- symmetry is first characterised, where measurement of the acoustic near- fields show that this sample supports two separate modes at different frequencies, with their phase either symmetric or anti-symmetric about the mirror plane between the lines of holes. One of these lines is then shifted along its periodicity by half of a grating pitch, thus creating glide-symmetry. The resulting sample is found to support a single hybrid mode, capable of reaching a much larger in-plane wavevector than possible on a simple grating with no gaps in its band-structure, and displaying a region of negative dispersion. The third sample demonstrates how one may increase the coupling strength between the two lines of holes via manipulation of the cavity shape, thus enhancing the glide-symmetry effect. The thesis concludes with preliminary investigations into other possible ways of manipulating acoustic surface waves, such as with the use of ‘screw-symmetry’.

by Changsong Qin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 128-139). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Typescript (Photocopy)

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon Graduate Center, 1980.

Acoustic emission(AE) is one of the most sensitive techniques to non invasively monitor deformation, fatigue, and fracture of many materials. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the potential to use AE to detect local failure events within porous ceramic materials. The primary material of interest was mineralized trabecular bone. A better understanding of the failure of trabecular bone is highly relevant to skeletal fragility diseases such as osteoporosis. This study sought to develop a post processing technique that could strengthen the relation between the events detected and the phenomena occurring as a specimen is loaded. The deficiency in other techniques is that they did not fully make a quantitative correlation between acoustic emission event characteristics and the physical occurrence of damage events. The study evaluated the use of seismic power laws because these laws were able to attach a quantitative model to an earthquake and its successive aftershocks. Earthquake transmission has similar propagation attributes when compared to acoustic emission; seismic waves radiate from the epicenter of an earthquake. Acoustic waves radiate from the source of energy release in an acoustic emission event. The study measured the acoustic emission response of trabecular bone and highly oriented ceramics. The bone and ceramics were extracted in two perpendicular directions so that the structural orientation was different. The study sought to evaluate if the power-laws could differentiate the acoustic emission response based on varying the material and varying the structural orientation. The samples were quasi-statically compressed; the mechanical and acoustic emission data were simultaneously recorded. The study found that using the seismic power-law did not statistically differentiate the directional orientation for trabecular bone or ceramic specimens. Acoustic emission did indicate that event detection was different for each type of the of material. Correlations were established with the acoustic emission response and the mechanical testing data. These relationships were explainable because of the mechanical properties of the material.

Pulsating flows in a Helmholtz pulse combustor tailpipe were numerically simulated by a commercial CFD software package, FLUENT. The effects of ambient temperature on the characteristics of the pulsating tailpipe flows were studied. Two study cases, with high and low levels of ambient temperature, were simulated with compressible flow equations. An additional case, with high ambient temperature, was simulated with incompressible (temperature-dependent density) flow equations. Results showed that the effect of ambient temperature on the mean temperature profile in the tailpipe was limited to the distance where the ambient fluid traveled into the tailpipe during the period of flow reversal. In this region, the amplitude of mass flow rate oscillation significantly increased, due to higher density associated with low ambient temperature. The overall effects of cooler ambient temperature included an increase in mean pressure at the entrance of the tailpipe and a decrease in the magnitude of velocity amplitude profile along the tailpipe. Interestingly, the mean velocities along the tailpipe, even at the tailpipe exit, were not affected by the cooler ambient air. The mean velocity at the exit corresponded to the higher temperature of fresh fluid from upstream, which was not affected by the ambient temperature, driven out of the tailpipe in each oscillation cycle. The linear acoustic theory with appropriate assumptions could be used to calculate the magnitude of the profiles of velocity amplitude along the tailpipe as a fair approximation, at least for the study cases in this thesis.

This research is primarily focused on developing potential applications for microwaveinduced thermoacoustic tomography and correcting for image degradations caused by acoustic heterogeneities. Microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography was first used to verify the feasibility of noninvasively detecting the coagulated damage based on different dielectric properties between normal tissue and lesion treated with high intensity focused ultrasound. Good image contrasts were obtained for the lesions. A comparison of the size of the lesion measured with microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography and the size measured by a gross pathologic photograph was presented to verify the effectiveness the proposed method. Clinical data for breast tumors were also collected to verify the feasibility of using microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography in breast cancer imaging. Next, the effects of acoustic heterogeneities on microwave-induced thermoacoustic tomography in weakly refractive medium were investigated. A correction method based on ultrasonic transmission tomography was proposed to correct for the image distortion. Numerical simulations and phantom experiments verify the effectiveness of this correction method. The compensation is important for obtaining higher resolution images of small tumors in acoustically heterogeneous tissues. Finally, the effects of the highly refractive skull on transcranial brain imaging were studied. A numerical method, which considered wave reflection and refraction at the skull surfaces, was proposed to compensate for the image degradation. The results obtained with the proposed model were compared with the results without considering the skull-induced distortion to evaluate the skull-induced effects on the image reconstruction. It was demonstrated by numerical simulations and phantom experiments that the image quality could be improved by incorporating the skull shape and acoustic properties into image reconstruction. This compensation method is important when the thickness of skull cannot be neglected in transcranial brain imaging.

Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains iv, 76 p. : ill. (some col.). Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-51).