Popis: |
A precise theory exists, based on an integral equation, by which acoustic signal attenuation versus frequency, due to a known bubble-density distribution versus bubble radius, may be calculated. Lacking a simple inversion scheme for the integral equation, an approximation which accounts only for attenuation due to resonant bubbles is available (and often applied) to calculate a bubble distribution. An iterative approach for improving on that resonant bubble approximation is presented here. That new approach is based on alternating calculations and corrections between attenuation data and the bubble distribution presumed to have produced it. This iterative technique is tested, first, on two simulated data sets of bubble distributions. It is then applied to attenuation data measured as a function of frequency from 39 to 244 kHz during the Scripps Pier Experiment [Caruthers et al., Proc. 16th Int. Cong. on Acoust., pp. 697–698 (1998)]. The results of the simulations demonstrate the validity of the method by faithfully reproducing the initial distributions for the simulated attenuation data. When applied to the real data, the method leads to a bubble distribution whose use in a direct solution of the integral equation reproduces the measured data with greater accuracy than does the resonant bubble approximation alone. |