Experimental study of the formation of nonlinear acoustic waves in focused beams

The shock wave formation in focused beams produced by spherical hydroacoustic transducers with different apertures and an operating frequency of 3 MHz, as well as in weakly divergent high-intensity beams of the same frequency, is studied experimentally. The profiles of the received signals are analyzed for different receiving points in the acoustic beam and for different combinations of nonlinear and diffraction effects. It is found that the distortion of the initial waveform (i.e., of the compression and rarefaction phases) is asymmetric. The asymmetry of the wave profile in a focused beam is more pronounced than that in a quasi-plane wave while the asymmetric distortion of the high-frequency carrier causes an asymmetric distortion of the pulse envelope. The angular characteristics of the difference-frequency waves produced by parametric sound radiators are compared using both focused and weakly divergent beams of pump waves. The experiments also show that the appearance of a bubbly phase screen in the region before the point of the shock formation either shifts this point to greater distances or makes the discontinuity formation impossible. Results illustrating the changes that occur in the shock wave characteristics when the bubbly phase screen is placed in the region of the fully developed shock are presented.