The near-field pressure distribution is given by the boundary integral of
Eq. (13.27) taking into account the double-strength source:
where the Green's function in spherical-cylindrical coordinates given by
Eq. (13.68) is used. Mast and Yu
[13] show that inserting Eqs. (
13.68) and (
13.99) into
Eq. (13.105) and integrating over the surface gives
[46]
which converges for
r
>
a but is generally used for
w
≥
a. The other part of the Green's function of
Eq. (13.68) could be used to derive an expression for
r
<
a as was done previously by Stenzel
[14]. However, a better expression is provided by Mast and Yu
[13],
which is derived by moving the origin of the coordinate system to a point on the
z axis that lies in the same plane as the observation point to give
which converges for
w
2
<
a
2
+
z
2 but is generally used for
w
<
a and is thus termed the
paraxial solution. These equations are an elegant and important result for ultrasound because they eliminate the need for inefficient numerical integration at high frequencies. In particular, the number of terms needed for convergence in the paraxial expansion decreases linearly toward the
z-axis until just a single term remains. This is the closed-form Backhaus axial solution
[47]:
The first term represents a point source at the center of the piston and the second term radiation from the perimeter. The magnitude of the axial pressure is
|p˜(0,z)|=2ρ0c|u˜0sink(ra−z)/2|.
Near the surface of the piston, it is approximately
|p˜(0,z)|≈ρ0cka|u˜0|/(1+z/a)
for
ka
<
0.5 and
z
<
0.5
a. Hence, at low frequencies, the radiated sound pressure of a loudspeaker may be calculated from the diaphragm velocity [see
Eq. 13.101], which in turn may be measured using a probe microphone close to the center. The pressure field for three values of
ka is plotted in
Fig. 13.6 and for
ka
=
12
π in
Fig. 13.7. From these figures, we can see the formation of the central and side lobes of the directivity patterns at the start of the far-field or Fraunhofer diffraction zone, where the waves are spherically diverging. The near-field or Fresnel region is dominated by nonpropagating interference patterns due to the differences in path lengths from different parts of the radiating surface. However, in the immediate near field of
Fig. 13.7, the pressure fluctuations are relatively small and we see here the formation of a plane wave, which extends outwards with increasing frequency. The furthest axial peak is a
focal point, which is useful for ultrasound applications. Also, we can make the following observations: