BIOMEASUREMENT2202-uwabiophysics.docVIP

BIOMEASUREMENT 2202 Sensing S2 Biological acoustics III. The radiation of sound In these notes we outline the physics necessary to understand how sound is coupled from a vibrating object to an acoustic medium. ? Radiation from a vibrating point  Consider a small pulsating sphere in air. As it pushes outwards it creates an overpressure. Contracting creates a pressure drop, drawing the air in. These pressure fluctuations propagate away from the object as sound.  For a sphere of radius a, with a radial velocity at the surface v(a). The volume flow will be Q = 4 π a2 v(a) The (complex) solution for a spherical wave has the form: p(r) = e -ikr and v(r) = e -ikr where ck = ?. To find the constant A we make the assumption of a small source (ka???). This gives: p(r) = Q e -ikr The intensity I at a distance r from a source with volume velocity Q is (r a): I(r) = W m-2 Since intensity falls off as r -2 the total power flux is independent of distance r - consistent with conservation of energy in a lossless medium. Also we see that intensity goes as (?Q)2 . Thus to radiate at constant power over a range of frequencies the volume velocity must reduce as the frequency increases. This is why the tweeter hardly moves compared to a woofer of conventional loudspeakers even though it may sound as loud. The radiated power ? is obtained by integrating over the area 4πr2: ? = ? The radiating dipole Acoustic monopoles are rather rare. Much more common are acoustic dipoles. A dipole is a pair of monopoles vibrating together, but out of phase. i.e., as one sphere is expanding, the other is contracting. The acoustic pressure at any distant point is given by the vector (in other words, taking into account the phase) sum of the pressures due to each monopole acting independently. If the monopoles are a distance d apart and have a strength of +Q and Q, then the pressure is again independent of the dimensions of the dipole (assuming that they are smal