Paper 3, Section II, A

Waves
Part II, 2019

(a) Derive the wave equation for perturbation pressure for linearised sound waves in a compressible gas.

(b) For a single plane wave show that the perturbation pressure and the velocity are linearly proportional and find the constant of proportionality, i.e. the acoustic impedance.

(c) Gas occupies a tube lying parallel to the xx-axis. In the regions x<0x<0 and x>Lx>L the gas has uniform density ρ0\rho_{0} and sound speed c0c_{0}. For 0<x<L0<x<L the temperature of the gas has been adjusted so that it has uniform density ρ1\rho_{1} and sound speed c1c_{1}. A harmonic plane wave with frequency ω\omega and unit amplitude is incident from x=x=-\infty. If TT is the (in general complex) amplitude of the wave transmitted into x>Lx>L, show that

T=(cos2k1L+14(λ+λ1)2sin2k1L)12|T|=\left(\cos ^{2} k_{1} L+\frac{1}{4}\left(\lambda+\lambda^{-1}\right)^{2} \sin ^{2} k_{1} L\right)^{-\frac{1}{2}}

where λ=ρ1c1/ρ0c0\lambda=\rho_{1} c_{1} / \rho_{0} c_{0} and k1=ω/c1k_{1}=\omega / c_{1}. Discuss both of the limits λ1\lambda \ll 1 and λ1\lambda \gg 1.