boundary. What happens then is discussed below.

But if the sound path

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length is longer than the near-field distance, the beam also increases in
diameter, diverging like the beam of a spotlight (see Figure 2-5).

D  BEAMAXIS
N

0 N 2N 3N 4N

Figure 2-5 Beam spread

The beam spread angle of an unfocused circular transducer can be

calculated as follows:
2 2
Near field length = D f = D
---- ----
4c 4

D = element diameter or aperture

f = frequency
c = sound velocity in test medium

 = wavelength = c
f

-6 dB half-beam spread angle ()ofanunfocusedtransducer:

=sin-1 0.514c

fD

From this equation it is seen that beam spreading increases with lower
frequencies and smaller diameters. A large beam spread angle can cause
sound energy per unit area to quickly drop with distance. This effectively
decreases sensitivity to small reflectors in some applications involving
long sound paths. In such cases, echo response can be improved by using
higher frequency and/or larger diameter transducers.

In the case of rectangular elements, the beam spreading is asymmetrical,

with a larger beam spread angle across the smaller dimension of the beam.
The angle for each axis can be calculated using the formula given below,
using the appropriate length or width for term L:

=sin-1 0.44c or =sin -1 0.44

fL L 

Rev 0 Oct 2011 www.itseasyforu.com Page 19 of 186