Rayleigh scattering of a cylindrical sound wave by an infinite cylinder

Rayleigh scattering, in which the wavelength is large compared to the scattering object, is usually studied assuming plane incident waves. However, full Green's functions are required in a number of problems, e.g., when a scatterer is located close to the ocean surface or the seafloor. This paper considers the Green's function of the two-dimensional problem that corresponds to scattering of a cylindrical wave by an infinite cylinder embedded in a homogeneous fluid. Soft, hard, and impedance cylinders are considered. Exact solutions of the problem involve infinite series of products of Bessel functions. Here, simple, closed-form asymptotic solutions are derived, which are valid for arbitrary source and receiver locations outside the cylinder as long as its diameter is small relative to the wavelength. The scattered wave is given by the sum of fields of three linear image sources. The viability of the image source method was anticipated from known solutions of classical electrostatic problems involving a conducting cylinder. The asymptotic acoustic Green's functions are employed to investigate reception of low-frequency sound by sensors mounted on cylindrical bodies.