Wave propagation in a fluid wedge over a solid half-space - Mesh-free analysis with experimental verification

Interaction between a bounded ultrasonic beam and a liquid wedge over a solid half-space is studied. A semi-analytical technique called distributed point source method (DPSM) is adopted for modeling the ultrasonic field in a wedge shaped fluid structure over a solid half space. This study is important for analyzing the ultrasonic waves used for the non-destructive inspections of partially immersed structures. It is also useful for studying the effect of underwater ultrasonic or acoustic wave experiments on marine lives near the shore. The problem geometry considers a bounded acoustic beam striking a fluid-solid interface between a fluid wedge and a solid half-space at steady-state. Solution of this problem is beyond the scope of the currently available analytical methods when the beam is bounded. Only numerical method (boundary element method (BEM) or finite element method (FEM)) based packages (e.g. PZFlex) are in principle capable of modeling ultrasonic fields in such structures. At high frequencies FEM and BEM based packages require huge amount of computation memory and time for their executions that DPSM technique can avoid. Effect of the angle of strike and the fluid wedge angle variation on the wave propagation characteristics is studied. Theoretical predictions are compared with some experimental results.