Exact radiation boundary conditions to determine the complex wavenumber of an underwater acoustic leaky wave antenna.

Underwater elastic leaky wave antennas (LWAs) steer acoustic energy as a function of frequency by exploiting fluid-solid coupling. LWAs present a modeling challenge due to complex radiation impedance on the waveguide surface that leads to changes in dynamic response. This work presents an approach to model underwater LWAs that considers an elastic unit cell surrounded by a fluid domain and includes a radiation boundary condition to simulate an open boundary. The model solves an eigenvalue problem for the complex-valued wavenumber given a specified frequency, forming an accurate representation for the free response of an elastic LWA in an underwater environment.