Correction for Spatial Averaging Artifacts for Circularly-Symmetric Pressure Beams Measured with Membrane Hydrophones

This paper investigates experimental underestimation of pressure measurements due to spatial averaging across a hydrophone sensitive element. Empirical relationships are measured to enable correction for hydrophone spatial averaging errors in peak compressional pressure (p _c ), peak rarefactional pressure (p _r ), and pulse intensity integral (pii). The empirical relationships show, for example, that if a 3-MHz, F/2 transducer is driven to moderate nonlinear distortion and measured at the focal point with a 500-microm membrane hydrophone, then spatial averaging errors are approximately 16% (p _c ), 12% (p _r ), and 24% (pii).