Diffraction effects in the parametric interaction of acoustic waves: application to measurements of the nonlinearity parameter B/A in liquids

This paper deals with diffraction effects related to the determination of nonlinearity parameters B/A in liquids using the parametric interaction. A diffraction model, based on plane wave expansions, is applied to weak nonlinear interactions between two ultrasonic waves propagating in an absorbing medium. A validation of the model has been carried out with an experiment performed using an optical interferometer. A method is proposed to measure nonlinearity parameters with the parametric interaction of two waves with a high frequency ratio. With respect to diffraction effects, the parametric interaction can then be identified with a phase modulation of the high frequency wave. A prototype, using the interaction of a 30-MHz frequency continuous wave with an acoustic pulse of central frequency 2.5 MHz, has been designed. The proposed method is validated by nonlinearity parameters measurements in well-known liquids (water and ethanol). The uncertainty on absolute measurements is discussed, and a relative method is proposed to increase the accuracy. This method enables measurements without any transducer calibration.