Ultrasonic Propagation in Liquids: I. Application of Pulse Technique to Velocity and Absorption Measurements at 15 Megacycles

Abstract

Equipment developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Radiation Laboratory has been applied to the measurement of sound velocity and absorption in liquids at 15 mc/sec. Pulses of one microsecond duration are generated by a transducer, which also picks up the resultant echoes from a plane reflector. Velocity measurements are made by determining the distance the transducer must be moved to delay the received echoes by a specified increment. Absorption measurements are made by determining the attenuation necessary to keep the receiver signal constant as the transducer is moved. The attenuation factor can be measured to an accuracy of about 5 percent and sound velocity to about 0.05 percent. Measurements in homologous series of organic liquids are reported.