The size effects of a rigid reflector in the scattering of transient ultrasonic field

A model is proposed to assess the transient ultrasonic field radiated by a planar transducer and scattered by a target with a known dimension and geom etry. The approach is based on the hypothesis of linear acoustics for a per fectly rigid reflector immersed in an isotropic, homogeneous and lossless f luid. The detected acoustic pressure is explained in terms of the plane and edge waves. In order to determine the boundary effects on the detected pre ssure, targets of different sizes were used in our simulations. An experime ntal verification of the proposed model is presented for the case of circul ar planar targets with different radii made of duralumin and immersed in di stilled water. In general, the theoretically predicted results are in good agreement with the experimentally measured results. (C) 2000 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.