Abstract

A method of measuring angular dependence of acoustic transmission through supercritical plates in air is discussed. The coincidence effect occurs in a supercritical plate when the component of the acoustic wave number parallel to the plate matches the bending wave number in the plate. The transmission of sound is a maximum at the angle where this trace wave number matching occurs. The theory of the coincidence effect is well-defined for unbounded thin plates using plane-wave excitation. However, experimental results for finite plates are known to diverge from theory, especially near grazing angles. An experimental setup has been developed in order to observe the coincidence effect using continuous-wave excitation and phased-array methods. Experimental results through a 0.5 mm thick aluminum bar exhibit strong maxima at the predicted coincidence angles, showing that coincidence is observable using continuous waves. Also, transmission near grazing angles is seen to diverge from infinite plate theory. Further work is suggested to improve the measurement setup and explore the source of the divergence.

Degree

College and Department

Physical and Mathematical Sciences; Physics and Astronomy

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