136th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America


Session 3aED-Education in Acoustics: Demos 2000



3aED6. An audible demonstration of low-frequency sound propagation in bubbly water.

Bubbly liquids have long held our attention as a novel medium for acoustic propagation, with nonlinear, dispersive, and attenuative properties that eclipse those present in either the gas or fluid phase alone. For example, when driven at frequencies that are well below the bubble resonance frequency, the material exhibits both high compressibility and high density. This unusual combination results in a mixture sound speed that can range as low as 100 m/s, far less than that of either the air or the water alone. This remarkable effect will be demonstrated by bubbling air through a vertical water-filled tube. The air injection process results in a broadband noise that drives the tube in its fundamental length mode. The frequency of this mode is audible, and scales with the mixture sound speed. By varying the flow rate of air (i.e., the void fraction), it is possible to vary the sound speed and thus control the pitch associated with the tube resonance. Knowledge of this resonance frequency and the length of the tube allows us to determine the mixture sound speed, which can then be compared with theory. [Work supported by ONR.]


Ronald A. Roy and Preston S. Wilson

Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Boston University, Boston MA 02215

William M. Carey

NUWC, Old Lyme, Connecticut 06374


Click here to start slide show


Table of Contents

Title Slide

Background: Bubbles and the Sea of Sound

How Do Bubbles Make Sound?

The bubbles in this demo are ěpluckedî when they pinch off the needles, thus producing sound.

Theory: Sound Speed in Bubbly Liquids & Simple Organ Pipe Modes

Experiment: The Demonstration Apparatus

The Measurements

Data Reduction: Obtaining Inferred Sound Speed from Measured Frequency of Modes

Comparing Theory with Experiment

Conclusions

Comments, Questions? -->Email: psw@bu.edu

Bubbly Fluids Main Page

Download Slides: 3aED6.pdf (529 K)