Sound Propagation in Water: Difference between revisions
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Figure 1 depicts typical graphs of sound speed affected by temperature, salinity, and pressure. | Figure 1 depicts typical graphs of sound speed affected by temperature, salinity, and pressure. | ||
Fig. 1: Sound Velocity Profile (SVP): temperature vs. sound speed (4). | Fig. 1: Sound Velocity Profile (SVP): temperature vs. sound speed (4). | ||
Revision as of 23:21, 5 December 2015
Created by Sarah Burch (Sburch8)
How Sound Waves Travel Through Water
The physical effect of sound as it travels through the medium of water has some unique effects not found in transmission mediums such as air or a solid. Basically, a sound wave consists of a repeating pattern of high and low pressures of energy from the point of the sound’s source as it travels through a medium to a sound receiver. Sound waves, known as rays, behave differently depending on the medium that it travels through: air, water, or a solid. Salt water, as a medium for sound propagation, affects sound by changes in temperature, salinity, and pressure as these sound rays do not propagate in straight lines in the ocean, they are refracted (2). Sound speed refraction results in a bigger angle to the plane of the waves when the speed is increased and a smaller angle when speed is decreased thus these changes cause sound to become dependent in how it propagates from its source to a receiver (3).
Speed of Sound in a Medium
The speed of sound in a medium can be determined by the equation: v= (Kρ)-½ where: v is the speed of sound, K is the compressibility, and ρ (rho) is the density
Examples
Figure 1 depicts typical graphs of sound speed affected by temperature, salinity, and pressure.
Fig. 1: Sound Velocity Profile (SVP): temperature vs. sound speed (4).
Sound waves travel faster at higher temperatures and slower at lower temperatures, which can vary from 1450 to 1498 m/sec in distilled water and 1531 m/sec in sea water as sound tends to travels towards the path of least resistance as depicted in Figure 2 (5).
Fig 2: Example of how sound moves towards the path of less resistance (6).
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See also
Nature, Behavior, and Properties of Sound
Transverse and Longitudinal Waves
Further reading
A Text-book of Sound by Edmund Catchpool, 1931
Rarefaction Wave Interaction of Pressure-gradient System by The Pennsylvania State University, 2007
The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima, 2013
External links
References
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/souspe2.html