Thesis (Ph.D)--Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2008. / Committee Chair: Wang, Zhong Lin; Committee Member: Degertekin, F. Levent; Committee Member: Liu, Meilin; Committee Member: Snyder, Robert L.; Committee Member: Tannenbaum, Rina. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-65). Also available via the Internet.

"January 1992." / "Technical report." "Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research through Contract no. N00014-91-J-1776." Includes bibliographical references (p. 7).

"January 1997." Thesis (Ph. D.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 1996. / "Prepared for: Office of Naval Research, Arlington, VA 22217-5660."

Thesis (M.Sc.)--City University of Hong Kong, 2005. / At head of title: City University of Hong Kong, Department of Physics and Materials Science, Master of Science in materials engineering & nanotechnology dissertation. Title from title screen (viewed on Sept. 4, 2006) Includes bibliographical references.

The scattering of acoustic waves by boundary discontinuities in waveguides is analyzed using the Method of Matched Asymptotic Expansions (MAE). Existing theories are accurate only for very low frequencies. In contrast, the theory developed in this thesis is valid over the entire range of frequencies up to the first cutoff frequency. The key to this improvement lies in recognizing the important physical role of the cutoff cross-modes of the waveguide, which are usually overlooked. Although these modes are evanescent, they contain information about the interaction between the local field near the discontinuity and the far-field. This interaction has a profound effect on the far-field amplitudes and becomes increasingly important with frequency. The cutoff modes also present novel mathematical problems in that current asymptotic techniques do not offer a rational means of incorporating them into a mathematical description. This difficulty arises from the non-Poincare form of the cross-modes, and its resolution constitutes the second new result of this thesis. We develop a matching scheme based on block matching intermediate expansions in a transform domain. The new technique permits the matching of expansions of a more general nature than previously possible, and may well have useful applications in other physical situations where evanescent terms are important. We show that the resulting theory leads to significant improvements with just a few cross-mode terms included, and also that there is an intimate connection with classical integral methods. Finally, the theory is extended to waveguides with slowly varying shape. We show that the usual regular perturbation analysis of the wave regions must be completely abandoned. This is due to the evanescent nature of the cross-modes, which must be described by a WKB approximation. The pressure field we so obtain includes older results. The new terms account for the cutoff cross-modes of the variable waveguide, which play a central role in extending the dynamic range of the theory. / Ph. D.

Acoustic metamaterials have been shown to support acoustic surface waves when excited by a broadband signal in a quiescent environment and these waves could be manipulated by varying the geometry of the structure making up the metamaterial. The study presented here demonstrates the generation of trapped acoustic surface waves when excited by a turbulent flow source. The metamaterial and flow were interfaced using a Kevlar covered single cavity whose Kevlar side faced the flow to ensure no significant disturbance to the flow and the other side was open to a quiescent (stationary) environment housing the metamaterial. Acoustic measurements were performed very close to the surface of the metamaterial in the Anechoic Wall Jet Facility at Virginia Tech using two probe-tip microphones and correlation analysis yielded the structure of the surface waves. Two different metamaterials; slotted array and meander array were tested and characterized by their dispersion relations, temporal correlations, and spatial-temporal structure. The measurements proved the existence of surface waves with propagating speeds of a tenth of the speed of sound, when excited by a turbulent boundary layer flow. These waves were much weaker than the overlying flow exciting them but showcased excellent attenuation properties away from the source of excitation. Measurements along the length of the unit-cell geometry of the metamaterial demonstrated high coherence over a range of frequencies limited by the dimension of the cell. This was a surprising behavior provided the cavity was excited by a fully developed turbulent flow over a flat plate and indicated to an area averaging phenomenon. A wall normal two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (2D-PIV) measurement was performed over the Kevlar covered cavity and a smooth surface to study the effects of the cavity on the flow. The field of view was the same for both cases which made direct flow comparison possible. Flow characteristics such as the boundary layer profiles, Reynolds stress profiles and fluctuating velocity spectrum were studied over the cavity and at downstream locations to quantify the differences in the flows. The boundary layer profiles collapsed in the inner region of the boundary layer but there were small differences in the outer region. The Reynolds stress profiles were also very similar with differences within the uncertainties of processing the images and it reflected similar average behavior of the flow over a smooth wall and a Kevlar covered cavity. The fluctuating velocity spectrum studied over the cavity location showed some differences at low frequencies for all wall normal locations while at higher frequencies the differences were within ±3 dB. These measurements showcased the underlying physics behind the interaction of acoustic metamaterials and turbulent boundary layer flows creating possibilities of using these devices for flow control although further analysis/optimization is needed to fully understand the capabilities of these systems. The demonstration of no significant effect on flow by the Kevlar covered cavity stimulated development of sensors which can average over a region of the wall pressure spectrum. / M.S. / In the field of physics, acoustic metamaterials have gained popularity due to their ability to exhibit certain properties such as sound manipulation which cannot be seen in regular materials. These materials have a key feature which is the periodic arrangement of geometric elements in any dimension. These materials can support a phenomenon termed as acoustic surface waves which are essentially pressure disturbances in the medium which behave differently than some known phenomenon such as sound waves when excited by a broadband pressure signal in a stationary medium. Also, it has been shown that these materials can change the nature of the acoustic surface waves if their geometry is changed. Here a successful attempt has been made to link two different fields in physics: acoustic metamaterials (acoustics) and turbulent flows (fluid dynamics). The study here uses turbulent boundary layer flows to excite these metamaterials to show the existence of acoustic surface waves. This is done by creating an interface between the flow and the metamaterial using a Kevlar covered through cavity which is essentially a through hole connecting to different sides: flow side and the stationary air/quiescent side. This cavity acted as the source of excitation for the metamaterial. The Kevlar covering ensures that the flow does not get disturbed due to the cavity which was also proved in this study using a visualization technique: Particle Image Velocity (PIV). Two microphones were used to study the pressure field very close to two metamaterials; one was referred to as the slotted array comprised of slot cavities arranged in one dimension (along the direction of the flow), while the other was termed as the meander array and it comprised of a meandering channel. The pressure field was well characterized for both the acoustic metamaterials and it was proved that these metamaterials could support acoustic surface waves even when excited by a turbulent flow. The idea here was to fundamentally understand the interaction of acoustic metamaterials and turbulent flows, possibly finding use in applications such as trailing edge noise reduction. The use of these metamaterials in direct applications needs further investigation. A finding from the pressure field study showed that the pressure measured along the length of the Kevlar covered cavity was uniform. The flow visualization study looked at the turbulent flow on a smooth wall and over a Kevlar covered cavity. This was done by injecting tiny particles in air and shooting a laser sheet over these to illuminate the flow. Images were recorded using a high-speed camera to track the movement of these particles. It was found that the flow was unaffected with or without the presence of a Kevlar covered cavity. This result coupled with the pressure field uniformity could have some wide applications in the field of pressure sensing.

A one dimensional normalized model for the frequency response of the acoustic power transmitted through nonuniform materials is developed. Using the ideal mixture model to relate acoustic velocity and impedance, this normalized model demonstrates that the power transmission characteristics are completely determined using only a composition profile and the parameters defining percent variation in acoustic velocity and impedance. For purposes of comparison, an analytically exact solution for exponential tapers is obtained. / Master of Science

Wideband differential interferometry has been applied to the detection of SAW on specimen surfaces and ultrasonic compressional waves in liquids. Herein is described the performance of a wideband differential system which uses single mode optical fibers to transmit coherent light from input optics to a surface which supports which supports ultrasonic waves. Polarized light from a 2.0 mW helium-neon laser source is divided and coupled to two flexible bundled single mode optical fibers which transmit the light to a small remote detection head. The light at the output end of the fibers is collimated and focused by a varifocal lens system to points on the surface of a specimen to be inspected. Elastic waves on the specimen differentially modulate the relative phases of the two optical beams due to periodic changes in particle displacement at the surface. Upon reflection, the two beams are superimposed, filtered, and detected to produce an optical signal directly proportional to instantaneous displacements. Also described is the development of two beam and four beam differential systems for the detection of ultrasonic compressional waves in water. Two laser beams are transmitted through a water tank and combined to produce an interference pattern. The detected motion of the pattern yields a differential measure of the acoustic field amplitude at the location of the two probe beams. If a pulsed ultrasonic wave is generated in the tank in a direction perpendicular to and coplanar with the probe beams, each beam is modulated independently and output signals of opposite phase are produced. The acoustic sensitivity of both the above systems may be adjusted by changing the separation between the two spots on the surface or the two beams in the tank. The system effectively discriminates against low frequency noise vibrations, while the upper acoustic frequency response exceeds 100 MHz. Applications requiring flexibility allowed by a remote detection head can use the fiber system to their advantage while potential applications of the four beam system to three dimensional mapping and ultrasonic field scattering is suggested. / Master of Science

A simple dual interferometer which uses two pairs of orthogonally polarized optical beams to measure both the amplitude and direction of propagation of broadband ultrasonic surface waves is described. Each pair of focused laser probe beams is used in a separate wideband differential interferometer to independently detect the component of surface wave motion along one direction of the surface. By combining the two output signals corresponding to both components, the two-dimensional surface profile and its variation as a function of time may be determined. Although the system has an optically adjustable -3db acoustic bandwidth of more than two decades (eg. 30kHz to 3MHz for acoustic emission measurements) and may detect peak displacements in the sub-Angstrom range, it is designed to be insensitive to low-frequency specimen translation. Potential applications in nondestructive evaluation are discussed. / Master of Science