Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Acoustical scattering by radially stratified scatterers
Liang-Wu Cai1, José Sánchez-Dehesa
1Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506, USA.
Abstract:
A recursive solution procedure is developed to analyze the acoustical scattering by multilayer concentric circular cylindrical scatterers. The procedure is based on multiple scattering in the single-scatterer methodology originally proposed by one of the authors. The solution for a scatterer having an arbitrary number of layers is solved by recursively using the solution for a dual-layer scatterer. The solution procedure and its implementation are extensively validated. Computational characteristics, including potential pitfalls and their avoidance, are explored. The solution procedure can be used to analyze scatterers with continuously varying properties in the radial direction by approximating such a scatterer as a multilayer system. A comprehensive numerical example shows an interesting phenomenon: when a planar wave impinges onto a cooling tube in air, instead of forming a shadow zone, a strongly collimated beam is formed behind the cooling tube. This phenomenon can be explained as due to the gradient-index acoustical lens that is created around the cooling tube, which bends the sound and collimates it in the forward direction.
Related Concept Videos
Echo
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case, then the...
Sound Waves: Interference
Interference: Path Lengths
Two special sources may be considered when they are in phase. This can be easily achieved by feeding the two sources from the same source. An example would be synchronizing the two speakers by feeding them with the same source, such as the sound waves produced by a tuning fork. This setup ensures that the two sources have the same frequency and are...
Polar Coordinates: Problem Solving
X-ray Crystallography
Diffraction
Diffraction is the change in the direction of travel experienced by an electromagnetic wave when it encounters a physical barrier whose dimensions are comparable to those of the wavelength of the light. X-rays are electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths about as long as the distance between neighboring...
Influence of Earth's Curvature and Atmospheric Refraction on Leveling

