Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Preston S Wilson.
The dynamic response of an acoustically driven spherical bubble between parallel plates is investigated in the linear approximation. For the case of rigid plates, explicit expressions are provided for the resonance frequency and damping, and the importance of including compressibility of the liquid is discussed. For wide channels, approximate results are presented that account for finite acoustic impedance of the plates.
In the ocean, natural and artificial processes generate clouds of bubbles that scatter and attenuate sound. Measurements have shown that at the individual bubble resonance frequency, sound propagation in this medium is highly attenuated and dispersive. The existing theory to explain this behavior is deemed adequate away from resonance. However, due to excessive attenuation near resonance, little experimental data exists for a comparison with model predictions. An impedance tube was developed specifically for exploring this regime. The effective medium phase speed and attenuation were inferred from measurements of the surface impedance of a layer of bubbly liquid composed of air bubbles and distilled water, for void fractions from 6.2 x 10(-5) to 5.4 x 10(-4) and bubble sizes centered around 0.62 mm in radius. Improved measurement speed, accuracy, and precision is possible with the new instrument, and both instantaneous and time-averaged measurements were obtained. The phase speed and attenuation at resonance was observed to be sensitive to the bubble population statistics and agreed with an existing model [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 85, 732-746 (1989)], within the uncertainty of the bubble population parameters. Agreement between the model and the data reported here is better than for the data that was available when the model was originally published.
A water-filled impedance tube capable of improved measurement accuracy and precision is reported. The measurement instrument employs a variation of the standardized two-sensor transfer function technique. Performance improvements were achieved through minimization of elastic waveguide effects and through the use of sound-hard wall-mounted acoustic pressure sensors. Acoustic propagation inside the water-filled impedance tube was found to be well described by a plane wave model, which is a necessary condition for the technique. Measurements of the impedance of a pressure-release terminated transmission line, and the reflection coefficient from a water/air interface, were used to verify the system.