High frequency material issues in scattering of sound by objects in water

Ray theoretic models were shown to predict scattering enhancements from laboratory scale cylindrical targets in water. Synthetic aperture sonar and acoustical holographic images were constructed from bistatic scattering. Targets of increasing complexity from material properties were investigated. Models range from simple ray optic style to corrections for transversely isotropic materials. To correctly model the complexity of anisotropic material such as fiberglass, the five independent elastic constants and the density were measured. In all of the cylindrical shells and solid targets, enhancements are observable for ka values ranging from 9 to 40 where k is the wavenumber and a is the cylinder radius.;The simpler targets consist of a low sound speed fluid within a thin plastic or fiberglass shell (11 < ka < 40). Shells were taken to be sufficiently thin so that the shell dynamics could be neglected in the models. The fluid has a density near that of water with a sound speed less than water. It is straightforward to construct the location and length of bright features for the fluid filled shells.;Solid finite cylinders of polystyrene (9 < ka < 23) and fiberglass (ka = 17 and 22) were found to have more structure in echoes than the fluid filled shells. Bright image features existed from longitudinal as well as shear wave propagation within the polystyrene. A model including shear and longitudinal wave components showed good agrement with experiments with respect to timing and length of features for RexoliteRTM. Fiberglass is the most complex due to the anisotropic symmetry of the material. The slowness matrix allowed for modeling of timing aspects of the solid fiberglass cylinder.;For a flat polystyrene half-space there is predicted to be a prominent enhancement of the acoustic reflection for an angle of incidence near 40°. Measurements showed the existence of a related peak in the reflection from solid Rexolite cylinders with ka near 9. Related peaks in the reflection from coated cylinders were observed.;The properties of sound transmitted by a stainless steel plate in water was investigated. The relevant S2b leaky Lamb waves have been previously demonstrated on spherical shells [Kaduchak et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 96, 3704 (1994)]. Directional properties of guided waves excited on a stainless steel plate in water were observed. Guided waves could be excited on the plate having group and phase velocities oppositely directed and such waves could profoundly influence the transmission of sound.