Table of contents

Traditionally, in moment-method analyses of electromagnetic scattering, the elements of the impedance matrix are calculated as convolutions of the basis elements with the appropriate dyadic Green's function. However, for scattering in the half-space, the vertical and azimuthal copolar terms of the Green's function require evaluation of Sommerfeld integrals which are computationally burdensome. In this paper, it is shown that, in populating the impedance matrix for the half-space problem, evaluation of Sommerfeld integrals is, in fact, not necessary. For monochromatic excitation, the plane-wave expansion of the scattered field constitutes a Fourier transform, in the horizontal plane, of a vector spectral function. This vector function results from the convolution, in the vertical dimension, of the respective angular spectra of the Green's function and the equivalent current. On application of the moment method, through the Weyl identity, the impedance-matrix elements corresponding to the singular terms of the Green's function are convolutions in the horizontal plane of spherical potentials, and Fourier transforms of scalar spectral functions. These scalar functions are derived from the basis elements and, with a judicious choice of basis, they are well behaved and of compact support, and consequently their Fourier transforms can be computed as FFTs.

The wave localization in randomly disordered periodic multi-span continuous beams is studied. The transfer matrix method is used to deduce transfer matrices of two kinds of multi-span beams. To calculate the Lyapunov exponents in discrete dynamical systems, the algorithm for determining all the Lyapunov exponents in continuous dynamical systems presented by Wolf et al is employed. The smallest positive Lyapunov exponent of the corresponding discrete dynamical system is called the localization factor, which characterizes the average exponential rates of growth or decay of wave amplitudes along the randomly mistuned multi-span beams. For two kinds of disordered periodic multi-span beams, numerical results of localization factors are given. The effects of the disorder of span-length, the non-dimensional torsional spring stiffness and the non-dimensional linear spring stiffness on the wave localization are analysed and discussed. It can be observed that the localization factors increase with the increase of the coefficient of variation of random span-length and the degree of localization for wave amplitudes increases as the torsional spring stiffness and the linear spring stiffness increase.

In this paper the first- and second-order Kirchhoff approximation is applied to study the backscattering enhancement phenomenon, which appears when the surface rms slope is greater than 0.5. The formulation is reduced to the geometric optics approximation in which the second-order illumination function is taken into account. This study is developed for a two-dimensional (2D) anisotropic stationary rough dielectric surface and for any surface slope and height distributions assumed to be statistically even. Using the Weyl representation of the Green function (which introduces an absolute value over the surface elevation in the phase term), the incoherent scattering coefficient under the stationary phase assumption is expressed as the sum of three terms. The incoherent scattering coefficient then requires the numerical computation of a ten- dimensional integral. To reduce the number of numerical integrations, the geometric optics approximation is applied, which assumes that the correlation between two adjacent points is very strong. The model is then proportional to two surface slope probabilities, for which the slopes would specularly reflect the beams in the double scattering process. In addition, the slope distributions are related with each other by a propagating function, which accounts for the second-order illumination function. The companion paper is devoted to the simulation of this model and comparisons with an 'exact' numerical method.

This second part presents illustrative examples of the model developed in the companion paper, which is based on the first- and second-order optics approximation. The surface is assumed to be Gaussian and the correlation height is chosen as anisotropic Gaussian. The incoherent scattering coefficient is computed for a height rms range from 0.5λ to 1λ (where λ is the electromagnetic wavelength), for a slope rms range from 0.5 to 1 and for an incidence angle range from 0 to 70°. In addition, simulations are presented for an anisotropic Gaussian surface and when the receiver is not located in the plane of incidence. For a metallic and dielectric isotropic Gaussian surfaces, the cross- and co-polarizations are also compared with a numerical approach obtained from the forward–backward method with a novel spectral acceleration algorithm developed by Torrungrueng and Johnson (2001, JOSA A 18).

The scattered field of Gaussian beam scattering from arbitrarily shaped dielectric objects with rough surfaces is investigated for optical and infrared frequencies by using the plane wave spectrum method and the Kirchhoff approximation, and the formulae for the coherent and incoherent scattering cross sections are obtained theoretically based on geometrical optics and tangent plane approximations. The infrared laser scattering cross sections of a rough sphere are calculated at 1.06 µm, and the influence of the beam size is analysed numerically. It is shown that when the beam size is much larger than the size of the object, the results in this paper will be close to those of an incident plane wave.

We present a method to transmit digital information through a highly scattering medium in a MIMO-MU (multiple input multiple output multiple users) context. It is based on iterations of a time-reversal process, and permits us to focus short pulses, both spatially and temporally, from a base antenna to different users. This iterative technique is shown to be more efficient (lower inter-symbol interference and lower error rate) than classical time-reversal communication, while being computationally light and stable. Experiments are presented: digital information is conveyed from 15 transmitters to 15 receivers by ultrasonic waves propagating through a highly scattering slab. From a theoretical point of view, the iterative technique achieves the inverse filter of propagation in the subspace of non-null singular values of the time-reversal operator. We also investigate the influence of external additive noise, and show that the number of iterations can be optimized to give the lowest error rate.

We use some recent mathematical results obtained for the high-frequency asymptotics of hyperbolic partial differential equations to derive exact transient power flow equations for vibrations of randomly heterogeneous cylindrical shells. The theory shows that the angularly resolved energy densities of an heterogeneous, elastic medium satisfy transient transport equations at higher frequencies. The behaviour of solutions of such equations short of their diffusion limit—if any—is fundamentally different from that of the solution of a diffusion equation, although the latter one is often invoked in the analyses of high-frequency vibrations of elastic structures. A condition by which diffusion equations can be obtained from transport equations is the presence of reflectors or heterogeneities such that scattering mean free paths are short with respect to the characteristic dimensions of the structure. The diffusion limit is reached in this study taking account of scattering by random heterogeneities of the background medium at the scale of the wavelength. This approach fills the gap between transport theory and the diffusion approach in structural dynamics, and clarifies the range of validity of the latter. Our results can be extended to fully coupled dynamic equations for compression, shear and bending of Timoshenko beams or Mindlin plates.

A study of the regions of validity for rough surface scattering models is conducted for surfaces with Gaussian and power law power spectra. Models included in the study are physical optics (PO), geometrical optics, small perturbation method and small slope approximation. The range of validity of the PO model is commonly described by a bound on the radius curvature of the surface relative to the electromagnetic wavelength. We show empirically that for backscattering the region of accuracy is more accurately described by a bound on surface slope. For surfaces with a Gaussian power spectrum, the PO model is accurate to within 2 dB for RMS surface slope values less than 0.59 cos³θ. For surfaces with a power law power spectral density, the PO model is accurate for significant slope values (RMS surface height/wavelength of the dominant spectral peak) less than 0.037 cos³θ. These conditions are valid up to approximately 30°. The regions of validity of other models in the study are also shown to be well approximated by bounds on surface slope.

The weighted curvature approximation (WCA) was recently introduced by Elfouhaily et al [7] as a unifying scattering theory that reproduces formally both the tangent-plane and the small-perturbation model in the appropriate limits, and is structurally identical to the former approximation with some different slope-dependent kernel. Due to the simplicity of its formulation, the WCA is interesting from a numerical point of view and the aim of the present paper is to establish its accuracy on some representative test cases. We derive statistical formulae for the coherent field and the cross-section in the case of stationary Gaussian random surfaces. We then specialize to the case of isotropic Gaussian spectra and perform numerical comparisons against rigorous method of moments (MoM)-based results on 2D dielectric surfaces. We show that the WCA remains extremely accurate in a roughness range where other first-order classical approximations (small-slope and Kirchhoff) clearly fail, at the same computational cost.

Novel Monte Carlo techniques are described for the computation of reflection coefficient matrices for multiple scattering of light in plane-parallel random media of spherical scatterers. The present multiple scattering theory is composed of coherent backscattering and radiative transfer. In the radiative transfer part, the Stokes parameters of light escaping from the medium are updated at each scattering process in predefined angles of emergence. The scattering directions at each process are randomized using probability densities for the polar and azimuthal scattering angles: the former angle is generated using the single-scattering phase function, whereafter the latter follows from Kepler's equation. For spherical scatterers in the Rayleigh regime, randomization proceeds semi-analytically whereas, beyond that regime, cubic spline presentation of the scattering matrix is used for numerical computations. In the coherent backscattering part, the reciprocity of electromagnetic waves in the backscattering direction allows the renormalization of the reversely propagating waves, whereafter the scattering characteristics are computed in other directions. High orders of scattering (∼10 000) can be treated because of the peculiar polarization characteristics of the reverse wave: after a number of scatterings, the polarization state of the reverse wave becomes independent of that of the incident wave, that is, it becomes fully dictated by the scatterings at the end of the reverse path. The coherent backscattering part depends on the single-scattering albedo in a non-monotonous way, the most pronounced signatures showing up for absorbing scatterers. The numerical results compare favourably to the literature results for nonabsorbing spherical scatterers both in and beyond the Rayleigh regime.

The spatial and temporal structures of time-dependent signals can be appreciably affected by random changes of the parameters of the medium characteristic of almost all geophysical environments. The dispersive properties of random media cause distortions in the propagating signal, particularly in pulse broadening and time delay. When there is also spatial variation of the background refractive index, the observer can be accessed by a number of background rays. In order to compute the pulse characteristics along each separate ray, there is a need to know the behaviour of the two-frequency mutual coherence function. In this work, we formulate the equation of the two-frequency mutual coherence function along a curved background ray trajectory. To solve this equation, a recently developed reference-wave method is applied. This method is based on embedding the problem into a higher dimensional space and is accompanied by the introduction of additional coordinates. Choosing a proper transform of the extended coordinate system allows us to emphasize 'fast' and 'slow' varying coordinates which are consequently normalized to the scales specific to a given type of problem. Such scaling usually reveals the important expansion parameters defined as ratios of the characteristic scales and allows us to present the proper ordering of terms in the desired equation. The performance of the main order solution is demonstrated for the homogeneous background case when the transverse structure function of the medium can be approximated by a quadratic term.

A simple mathematical model is provided for a description of wave propagation through finite slabs of periodic media. The model concerns the devices of CROW (coupled resonators optical waveguide) type which are widely discussed in physical literature in the last several years. An incident pulse is considered, whose frequency is distributed in a small neighbourhood of a singular frequency for which the dispersion relation of the medium is very flat, and the group velocity (for the infinite medium) is small. It is proved that only a small part of the energy of the pulse propagates with the speed of light. Another part of the energy propagates with the group velocity. The price to pay for this slowdown is the reflection of the majority of the energy of the incident pulse.

In a recent paper to this journal (Whitman A M et al 2003 Waves Random Media13 269–86) we derived a set of coupled equations that describe the intermodal scattering of acoustic radiation in a duct whose speed of sound varies randomly in space and time. In the paper we were mainly interested in modes that were not near cutoff. Here we study the solution of these equations in the vicinity of the cutoff. We find that near cutoff almost all the energy is reflected back independent of the other duct parameters. In addition to presenting these results, we analyse the mathematical structure of the equations in these regions in order to elucidate the reason for this behaviour.

This paper deals with a TE plane wave reflection and transmission from a thin film with one-dimensional disorder by means of the stochastic functional approach. The relative permittivity of the thin film is written by a Gaussian random field in the horizontal direction with infinite extent, and is uniform in the vertical direction with finite thickness. A random wavefield is obtained in terms of a Wiener–Hermite expansion representation with approximate expansion coefficients (Wiener kernels) under a small fluctuation case. For a SiC thin film and a glass thin film having one-dimensional disorder with Gaussian correlation or an exponential correlation, numerical examples of the first-order incoherent scattering cross section and the optical theorem are illustrated in the figures. It is then found that ripples and four major peaks appear in angular distributions of the incoherent scattering. Such four peaks may occur in the directions of forward scattering, specular reflection, backscattering and in the symmetrical direction of forward scattering with respect to the normal to surface of the thin film. Physical processes that yield such ripples and peaks are discussed.

The effect of space- and time-dependent random mass density, velocity, and pressure fields on frequencies and amplitudes of acoustic waves is considered by means of the analytical perturbative method. The analytical results, which are valid for weak fluctuations and long wavelength sound waves, reveal frequency and amplitude alteration, the effect of which depends on the type of random field. In particular, the effect of a random mass density field is to increase wave frequencies. Space-dependent random velocity and pressure fields reduce wave frequencies. While space-dependent random fields attenuate wave amplitudes, their time-dependent counterparts lead to wave amplification. In another example, sound waves that are trapped in the vertical direction but are free to propagate horizontally are affected by a space-dependent random mass density field. This effect depends on the direction along which the field is varying. A random field, which varies along the horizontal direction, does not couple vertically standing modes but increases their frequencies and attenuates amplitudes. These modes are coupled by a random field which depends on the vertical coordinate, but the dispersion relation remains the same as in the case of the deterministic medium.

The paper describes a natural manifestation of the enhanced backscattering effect in conditions when sunlight is scattered by the sea bottom covered by shallow rippled water. In this system the water surface plays the role of a phase screen that focuses the light on the bottom, while the sandy bottom acts as a set of random single scatterers.