Scattering of sound by a vorticity filament: an experimental and numerical investigation

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2001 Mar;63(3 Pt 2):036607. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.63.036607. Epub 2001 Feb 21.

Abstract

A vorticity filament is investigated experimentally using the transmission of an ultrasonic wave through the flow. The analysis of the wave-front distortion provides noninvasive measurements of the vortex circulation and size. The latter is estimated by analytical calculations of the scattering of a plane wave by a vorticity filament. The case of a cylindrical wave incident on a vortex leads to similar experimental results which are successfully compared to a parabolic equation simulation. Finally, a finite-difference code based on linear acoustics is presented, in order to investigate the structure of the scattered wave numerically.