ABSTRACT
Acoustic backscattering from elastic cylindrical shells of finite lengths, immersed in water, is investigated. These objects, characterized by the ratio of length over diameter (L/2a = 9.76, 4.88, 2.44, a: outer radius), are excited by an obliquely incident plane acoustic wave. In the three cases studied here, the radii ratio b/a (b: inner radius) is fixed at 0.97. The investigated dimensionless frequency range extends over 10 k1a < or = 50 (k1 : wave number in water). The first guided wave, T0, is of particular interest here. The influence of the shell's length on the backscattered pressure is experimentally observed in the time-angle and frequency-angle representations. In support of this experimental study, a time-domain representation is used by extending a theoretical model that provides a geometrical description of the helical propagation of the surface waves around the shell [Bao, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 94, 1461-1466 (1993)]. Theoretical results on cylindrical shells considered as infinitely long, with identical characteristics, are compared with both experimental representations.
ABSTRACT
The acoustic scattering from a fluid-loaded stiffened cylindrical shell is described by using elasticity theory. The cylindrical shell is reinforced by a thin internal plate which is diametrically attached along the tube. In this model, cylindrical shell displacements and constraints expressed from elasticity theory are coupled to those of the plate at the junctions, where plate vibrations are described by using plate theory. The present model is first validated at low frequency range (k1a approximately 5-40) by comparison with a previous model based on the Timoshenko-Mindlin thin shell theory and by experimental results. Theoretical and experimental resonance spectra are then analyzed in a high frequency range (k1a approximately 120-200). Only resonances due to the S0 wave are clearly observed in this frequency range, and their modes of propagation are identified. Furthermore, A0 wave propagation is detected, because of the presence of the reflection of this wave at the shell-plate junctions.
