Aspects of Laser-Generated Acoustic Shock Waves in Air
Aspects of Laser-Generated Acoustic Shock Waves in Air
Aspects of Laser-Generated Acoustic Shock Waves in Air
Introduction 2.5
x 10
SOUND PRESSURE Pa
both solid and liquid media is well known1), research into laser-
2
generated acoustic pulses in air has not been reported to the 1.5
same extent. Laser users usually try to avoid a breakdown in
air, since the laser energy is absorbed and heat is produced 1
when charged particles such as electrons stripped from atoms
are generated2). Nevertheless it remains a fact that strong 0.5
the light beam from a laser has a peak power of the order of
10 MW or more and that this beam is focused through a lens. -0.5
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
In the focal area, the air absorbs energy from the light by means (a ) T IM E m s
of the cascade process. The energy gain causes local heating of 120
the gas, which expands outwards as a propagating shock wave
show that the free field sound pressures obtained within a 104
source-receiver distance of less than 1.5m are at levels
102
sufficient to result in nonlinear effects and are highly
repeatable. Therefore, laser-generated acoustic shocks can be 100
4 5
used for laboratory-based research into nonlinear acoustics. 10 10
εp0 x i.e. between 1/65 and 1/3 of the wavelength at the peak energy
T = T0 1 + (2) frequency (20 KHz).
c03 ρ 0T0
where p 0 = p ( x = 0), T0 = T ( x = 0), ρ0 is the density of standard deviation
measurement
inverse square law
air, c0 is adiabatic sound speed in air, ε =(γ+1)/2 ≈1.2 and 10
3
PEAK PESSURE Pa
is the adiabatic constant.
4
10 measurement
inverse square law
PEAK PRESSURE Pa
2
10
1 2
10 10
10
3
SOURCE-RECEIVER DISTANCE cm
the spark. From the data and calculations it may be concluded 156 smooth rigid
0.2mm sand paper
that, although the spark itself is asymmetric and elongated in
the direction of the incoming light beam6), the associated 154
inverse square law
1.0mm sand
acoustic pulse behaves essentially as though from a point source 152 free field
at distances beyond 10 cm but with additional nonlinear 1.0mm lattice
hydrodynamic losses and air absorption. Hydrodynamic 150
the free field data in Figures 2 and 3. Surface roughness is Sound Speed in air
(3)
found also to cause elongation of the waveforms beyond that tortuosity =
expected from nonlinear hydrodynamic effects. Figure 5
compared waveforms received at 30 cm from the laser- Sound Speed in material
generated sparks over smooth glass and the surface formed
from 5mm cubic glass grains. As well as reduction in This tortuosity value is very close to the average value 1.067
amplitude and elongation, the waveform received over the deduced by fitting data for the acoustic characteristic impedance
rough surface shows evidence of a surface wave similar to that that have been obtained independently. Similar data and
observed at lower amplitudes7). deductions have been obtained with samples of gravel and
porous concrete. The results are summarised in Table 1
(a)
together with values deduced from fitting impedance tube data
2500 and the measured flow resistivities. Not surprisingly, there is
evidence that timing the front end of shock becomes a less
2000 accurate method for tortuosity deduction as the flow resistivity
of the porous material increases. Further work is needed to
1500 investigate possible nonlinear and dispersive effects. However,
PRESSURE Pa
600
a. The characteristics of laser-generated acoustic pulses are
400 useful for laboratory research into nonlinear acoustic
200 effects.
0 b. Small-scale measurements made over a series of ground
-200
surfaces have shown that the propagation of laser-induced
acoustic shocks near to the ground is sensitive to
-400 small-scale ground roughness.
-600
c. Preliminary measurements of the speed of laser-induced
-800
0 50 100 150 200
acoustic pulses through thick samples of material suggest
the possibility for developing a novel ultrasonic method for
TIME µs determining the tortuosity of rigid-porous materials.