Computational study on prediction of electrical beam steering phenomenon of parametric array sound source

The parametric array phenomenon refers to the generation of a high directivity low frequency wave from a small size radiation plate using the nonlinearity of the medium. In order to improve the usability of parametric array, the beam steering method of low frequency wave is researched, and the beam steering phenomenon is predicted easily using the PD (product directivity) model. However, the PD model can only be applied to Gaussian sources under quasi-linear conditions. Also, the prediction accuracy of low frequency wave beam width is poor. In this paper, a method for predicting the beam steering characteristics of a parametric array that can overcome the limitation of the PD model is investigated. For this purpose, the numerical analysis algorithm of the KZK (Khokhlov-Zabolotskaya-Kuzentsov) equation widely used for parametric array phenomenon prediction is improved. Thus, the beam steering characteristics are calculated by applying the electrical beam steering condition and comparing experimental results. As a result, the numerical analysis using the modified KZK equation algorithm in this study confirms that the beam steering phenomenon can be predicted even in a parametric array source that does not correspond to the quasi-linear condition.