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Principle:
An ultrasonic wave hits a straight
edge which limits the wave field to
one side. According to Huygens
principle, the edge is a point source
for secondary waves, and these pen-
etrate also into the shaded area of
the edge. In the transmission range,
secondary waves interfere with the
primary waves, so that a succession
of maxima and minima of the alter-
nating sound pressure are created
transverse to the edge.
80 Laboratory Experiments Physics PHYWE Systeme GmbH & Co. KG D - 37070 Gttingen
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Ultrasonic Diffraction by a Straight Edge 1.5.23
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PHYWE series of publications Laboratory Experiments Physics PHYWE SYSTEME GMBH & Co. KG D-37070 Gttingen 21523-00 1
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1.5.23 Ultrasonic Diffraction by a Straight Edge
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a.) b.)
Connect the transmitter to the TR1 diode socket of the ultra- According to Huygens principle, the disturbing edge is a point
sonic unit and operate it in continuous mode Con. Connect source of scattered waves which also pass into the shaded
the receiver to the left BNC socket (in front of the amplifier). area, but with decreasing intensity. In the transmission range,
Connect it to the analog output of the analog multimeter for the scattered waves interfere with undisturbed successive pri-
display of the signal received subsequent to amplification and mary waves.
rectification. On displacing the observed position transverse to the edge in
Avoid operating the amplifier in the saturation range to ensure the positive x direction, the intensity of the undisturbed wave
proportionality between the input signal and the analog output remains constant, but that of the scattered wave decreases.
signal. Should such a case occur and the OVL diode light Superpositioning of the two waves results in the formation of
up, reduce either the transmitter amplitude or the input ampli- intensity maxima and minima which weaken with increasing
fication. transverse distance from the edge.
Two measurement series are to be recorded: The 1st mea- Constructive interference at the oberved position x is given
surement series with a diffracting straight edge; the 2nd mea- when the path difference between the two wave trains is a
surement series without a diffracting straight edge (remove the whole number of a wavelength l. When r0 is the distance of
metal screens set-up for this). the observed plane from the edge, and l is the distance of the
To record the 1st measurement series, slide the receiver par- observed position from the edge (see Fig. 4), then the follow-
allel to the edge sheets in steps of x = 0.5 cm outside of the ing is valid for the constructive interference at the observed
shaded area (and steps of x = 1 cm in the shaded area) and position x:
record the corresponding receiver voltages U.
For determining intensities without a diffracting straight edge, nl l r0 2r20 x2 ; n 1, 2, 3, ... (1)
steps of x = 1.0 cm can be used throughout the measure-
ment. Using n2l2 < 2nlr0 we obtain the following for the position of
the intensity maxima:
Note:
As a rule, interference to the measurement field by reflected xmax 22n lr0 (2)
sound can hardly be completely avoided. To keep such inter-
ference as small as possible, do not carry out the experiment
Fig. 4: Geometry for determining the path difference between
in narrow rooms, and do not set the experiment up in the
primary and secondary waves.
immediate vicinity of reflecting surfaces (walls, cupboards
etc.).
2 21523-00 PHYWE series of publications Laboratory Experiments Physics PHYWE SYSTEME GMBH & Co. KG D-37070 Gttingen
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Ultrasonic Diffraction by a Straight Edge 1.5.23
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Destructive interference occurs, when the path difference (l-r0) The above considerations on the determination of interference
is an odd-numbered multiple of l/2. For small n values and conditions were based on the simplification of plane primary
r0 >> l the following is analogously valid for the x positions of waves. This assumption is not fulfilled by the transmitter, how-
the intensity minima: ever, as this is an almost point-like sender with a club-shaped
transmitting characteristic, which is the reason for the
decrease in the intensity of the alternating sound pressure at
xmin 212n 12 lr0 ; n 1, 2, 3, ... (3)
observation positions of x > 10 cm.
From Fresnels theory, for diffraction at an edge, the intensity
Fig. 5a shows the experimentally determined course of the
I and the amplitude A at position x = 0 are as follows, where
intensity on diffraction at the edge. The course of the intensi-
I0 and A0 are the corresponding values at the same position
ty without edge is shown in curve Fig. 5b.
without a diffracting edge:
The transmitter operates at a frequency f = 40 kHz. It follows
I(x = 0) = 1/4 I0 S A(x = 0) = 1/2 A0 (4)
from c = f l (c = 343.4 ms-1 at T = 20C) that the wavelength
of the ultrasound l = 0.858 cm.
Intensity I is proportional to the square of amplitude
In the region of the geometrical shade limit (-x are), the inten-
A (I r A2).
sity increases continuously and has a 1st maximum outside of
In our experiment, the measured voltage U is directly propor-
the shaded limit, at which the intensity is surprisingly higher
tional to the amplitude A of the alternating sound pressure, so
than the intensity without edge diffraction (curve b).
that acc. to equation 4, the following is also valid:
Table 1 lists the experimentally found positions of the intensi-
ty maxima and minima, as well as the comparative values cal-
U(x = 0) = 1/2 U0 (5)
culated using equations 1 and 2.
Fig. 5: Course of intensity of the alternating sound pressure as function of position coordinate x (5a: With diffraction at an edge;
5b: Without an edge).
Maxima Minima
PHYWE series of publications Laboratory Experiments Physics PHYWE SYSTEME GMBH & Co. KG D-37070 Gttingen 21523-00 3
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1.5.23 Ultrasonic Diffraction by a Straight Edge
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Literature:
Hecht/Zajac: Optics; Addison-Wesley Publishing Company
Jenkins and White: Fundamentals of Optics; McGraw-Hill
Book Company
4 21523-00 PHYWE series of publications Laboratory Experiments Physics PHYWE SYSTEME GMBH & Co. KG D-37070 Gttingen