Analysis of acoustic radiation patterns of array transducers using the TLM method

Abstract

Abstract The paper describes the application of the TLM numerical method for the analysis of acoustic wave propagation. It presents a general scattering algorithm for modelling homogeneous and inhomogeneous mediums where both the density and compressibility of the propagation space are varied. The method is used to obtain the acoustic radiation patterns of discrete transducer arrays. The effect of the spacing and the number of transducer elements on the radiation pattern are demonstrated by numerical results obtained using a two‐dimensional TLM mesh. The results also show the effect of array shading on the radiation pattern. Beam steering by delayed excitation of the transducer elements is also demonstrated here. In addition the paper presents two simple techniques for detecting the direction of wave propagation in the TLM mesh.