The Frequency of a Sound Wave

Audible Range: 20 Hz ----- 20,000 Hz.

Infrasonic waves: Sound waves with frequencies < 20 Hz.

Ultrasonic waves:
Sound waves with frequencies > 20,000 Hz.
 Bats and ultrasonic sound waves

Bats use ultrasonic frequencies up to 100 kHz for locating their food
sources and navigating.
 Infrasonics

Rhinoceroses use infrasonic frequencies as low as 5 Hz to call

one another.
 Introduction to Ultrasonics
• The word ultrasonic combines the Latin roots ultra,
meaning ‘beyond’ and sonic, or sound.
• The sound waves having frequencies above the audible
range i.e. above 20000 Hz are called ultrasonic waves.
• Generally these waves are called as high frequency
waves.
• The field of ultrasonics have applications for imaging,
detection and navigation.
• The broad sectors of society that regularly apply ultrasonic
technology are the medical community, industry, the
military and private citizens.

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 Properties of ultrasonic waves
(1) They have a high energy content.

(2) Just like ordinary sound waves, ultrasonic waves get reflected,
refracted and absorbed.

(3) They can be transmitted over large distances with no appreciable

loss of energy.

(4) If an arrangement is made to form stationary waves of

ultrasonics in a liquid, it serves as a diffraction grating. It is
called an acoustic grating.

(5) They produce intense heating effect when passed through a

substance.
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 Ultrasonics Production
Ultrasonic waves are produced by the following methods.

(1) Magneto-striction generator or oscillator

(2) Piezo-electric generator or oscillator

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 Magnetostriction Generator

Principle: Magnetostriction effect

• When a ferromagnetic rod like iron or nickel is placed in a
magnetic field parallel to its length, the rod experiences a small
change in its length.
• This is called magnetostricion effect.
• The change in length depends upon the intensity of magnetic
field and nature of the ferromagnetic material.
• The change in length takes place due to the presence of domains
in ferromagnetic material.

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The change in length (increase or decrease) produced in the rod
depends upon the strength of the magnetic field, the nature of the
materials and is independent of the direction of the magnetic field
applied.

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 Construction

The experimental arrangement is shown in Figure

Magnetostriction oscillator
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• XY is a rod of ferromagnetic materials like iron or nickel. The
rod is clamped in the middle.

• The alternating magnetic field is generated by electronic

oscillator.

• The coil L1 wound on the right hand portion of the rod along
with a variable capacitor C.

• This forms the resonant circuit of the collector tuned oscillator.

The frequency of oscillator is controlled by the variable
capacitor.

• The coil L2 wound on the left hand portion of the rod is

connected to the base circuit. The coil L2 acts as feed –back
loop.
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 Working
• When High Tension (H.T) battery is switched on, the
collector circuit oscillates with a frequency,
1
f=
2  L1 C

• This alternating current flowing through the coil L1

produces an alternating magnetic field along the
length of the rod.
• The result is that the rod starts vibrating due to
magnetostriction effect.

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The frequency of vibration of the rod is given by
1 Y
n
2l 
where l = length of the rod
Y = Young’s modulus of the rod material and
 =density of rod material

• It vibrates at the frequency twice that of the frequency of the

alternating current.
• The capacitor C is adjusted so that the frequency of the oscillatory
circuit is equal to natural frequency of the rod and thus resonance
takes plate.
• Now the rod vibrates longitudinally with maximum amplitude and
generates ultrasonic waves of high frequency from its ends.
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 Advantages
1. The design of this oscillator is very simple and its production
cost is low
2. At low ultrasonic frequencies, the large power output can be
produced without the risk of damage of the oscillatory circuit.

Disadvantages
1. It has low upper frequency limit and cannot generate ultrasonic
frequency above 3000 kHz (ie. 3MHz).
2. The frequency of oscillations depends on temperature.
3. There will be losses of energy due to hysteresis and eddy current.

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 Piezo Electric Generator or Oscillator
• In 1880, Pierre and Jacques Curie discovered P.E. effect

Principle : Inverse piezo electric effect

• If mechanical pressure is applied to one pair of opposite faces
of certain crystals like quartz, equal and opposite electrical
charges appear across its other faces.
This is called as piezo-electric effect.

• The converse of piezo electric effect is also true.

If an electric field is applied to one pair of faces, the
corresponding changes in the dimensions of the other pair of
faces of the crystal are produced.
This is known as inverse piezo electric effect or
electrostriction. 15
 Construction
The circuit diagram is shown in Figure

Piezo electric oscillator

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• The quartz crystal is placed between two metal plates A and B.
• The plates are connected to the primary (L3) of a transformer
which is inductively coupled to the electronics oscillator.
• The electronic oscillator circuit is a base tuned oscillator circuit.
• The coils L1 and L2 of oscillator circuit are taken from the
secondary of a transformer T.
• The collector coil L2 is inductively coupled to base coil L1.
• The coil L1 and variable capacitor C1 form the tank circuit
of the oscillator.

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 Working
• When H.T. battery is switched on, the oscillator produces high
frequency alternating voltages with a frequency.
1
f 
2 L1C1
• Due to the transformer action, an oscillatory e.m.f. is induced in the
coil L3. This high frequency alternating voltages are fed on the plates
A and B.
• Inverse piezo-electric effect takes place and the crystal contracts and
expands alternatively. The crystal is set into mechanical vibrations.
• The frequency of the vibration is given by

P Y
n where P = 1,2,3,4 … etc. for fundamental,
2l  first over tone, second over tone etc.,
Y = Young’s modulus of the crystal and
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ρ = density of the crystal.
• The variable condenser C1 is adjusted such that the
frequency of the applied AC voltage is equal to the
natural frequency of the quartz crystal, and thus resonance
takes place.

• The vibrating crystal produces longitudinal ultrasonic

waves of large amplitude.

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 Advantages
• Ultrasonic frequencies as high as 5 x 108Hz or 500 MHz can be
obtained with this arrangement.
• The output of this oscillator is very high.
• It is not affected by temperature and humidity.

Disadvantages
• The cost of piezo electric quartz is very high
• The cutting and shaping of quartz crystal are very complex.

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 Detection of
Ultrasonic Waves

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Kundt’s tube method:

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• This method cannot be used if the wavelength
of ultrasonic waves is very small i.e., less than
few mm.
• In the case of a liquid medium, instead of
lycopodium powder, powdered coke is used to
detect the position of nodes.

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24
 Sensitive flame method:
• A narrow sensitive flame is moved along the medium and change
in its intensity is noticed.
• At the positions of antinodes, the flame is steady.
• At the positions of nodes, the flame flickers because there is a
change in pressure.
• In this way, positions of nodes and antinodes can be found out in
the medium.
• The average distance between the two adjacent nodes is equal to
half the wavelength.
• If the value of the frequency of ultrasonic wave is known, the
velocity of ultrasonic wave propagated through the medium can be
calculated.
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Piezo electric oscillator:

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Ultrasonic Transducers
and Their Uses
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 Transducers
• A transducer is an electronic device that
converts energy from one form to another.
• Common examples include microphones,
loudspeakers, thermometers, position and
pressure sensors, and antenna.

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 Ultrasonic Transducers
• An ultrasonic transducer is a device used to convert some other
type of energy into an ultrasonic vibration (mechanical energy)
and vice versa.
• Ultrasonic transducers are divided into three broad categories:
transmitters, receivers and transceivers.
Transmitters convert electrical signals into ultrasound,
receivers convert ultrasound into electrical signals, and
transceivers can both transmit and receive ultrasound.
• Electromechanical transducers are far more versatile and include
piezoelectric and magnetostrictive devices.
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 Magnetostrictive Transducer
• A magnetostrictive transducer makes use of a type of magnetic
material in which an applied oscillating magnetic field,
creating a periodic change in the length of the material and
thus producing a high-frequency mechanical vibration (20-
40KHz)
• Magnetostrictive transducers are used to produce high
intensity ultrasonic waves which are commonly used in
ultrasonic cleaners and ultrasonic machining applications.

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 Piezoelectric transducer
• By far the most popular and versatile type of ultrasonic transducer
is the piezoelectric crystal, which converts an oscillating electric
field applied to the crystal into a mechanical vibration.
• Piezoelectric crystals include quartz, Rochelle salt, and certain
types of ceramic.
• Piezoelectric transducers are readily employed over the entire
frequency range and at all output levels.
• Particular shapes can be chosen for particular applications.
For example, a disc shape provides a plane ultrasonic wave, while
curving the radiating surface in a slightly concave or bowl shape
creates an ultrasonic wave that will focus at a specific point.
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• This type of ultrasonic transducers are constructed by
incorporating one or more piezoelectric vibrators which are
electrically connected to pulsing-receiving system.
• The piezoelectric elements are mainly made up of material
such as lead zirconate titnate (PZT).
• Many such elements are arranged to form a transducer
assembly.

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• An ultrasonic transducer is made up of an active element, a backing,
and wearplate.
• The active element is the heart of the transducer which is usually a
piezoelectric or single crystal material (transreceiver).
• The backing is most commonly a highly attenuative and very dense
material and is used to control the vibration of the transducer crystal
by absorbing the energy that radiates from the back face of the
piezoelectric element.
• The main purpose of the wearplate is simply to protect the
piezoelectric transducer element from the environment. Wearplates
are selected to generally protect against wear and corrosion.

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 Uses

• Measuring flow
• Determining flaws
• Measuring thickness
• Ultrasonic diagnostic imaging

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 Absorption and dispersion of
ultrasonic waves
• Two main mechanisms namely absorption and scattering
(dispersion) are responsible for the ultrasound attenuation.
• When an ultrasonic wave passes through a medium, a part of its
energy is converted into heat due to the alternative compression
and rarefaction taken place and hence its intensity decreases.
The process is termed as absorption of the waves in the medium
and wave is said to be attenuated.
• The dispersion of the ultrasonic wave is referred to as the change
in its velocity with frequency.

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 Factors responsible for ultrasonic
absorption
• Thermal conductance effect
• Chemical effects
• Viscous effects
• Nonlinearity of medium

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• The attenuation of the ultrasonic waves is characterized by the
exponential decrease of the pressure amplitude p and of intensity
amplitude I with the propagating distance z, such that
 z
p  p0 e
2  z
and I  I 0 e
where p0 and I0 are the pressure and intensity at z = 0.
• The quantity  is called the pressure-frequency dependent
attenuation coefficient, expressed in cm-1
• The factor of 2 in the exponential term of the intensity equation
results from the transformation of the pressure into intensity, as
intensity is proportional to the square of pressure.
• The commonly used units for in biomedical ultrasonics are dB
(decibel).
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Applications of
ultrasonic waves

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 Applications of Ultrasonic Waves in Engineering

(1) Detection of flaws in metals

• Ultrasonic waves are used to detect the presence of flaws or
defects in the form of cracks, blowholes porosity etc., in the
internal structure of a material
• By sending out ultrasonic beam and by measuring the time
interval of the reflected beam, flaws in the metal block can be
determined.
• In flaws, there is a change of medium and this produces reflection
of ultrasonic at the cavities or cracks.
• The method is very cheap and of high speed of operation.
• It is more accurate than radiography.
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 (2) Ultrasonic Drilling
• Ultrasonics are used for making holes in
very hard materials like glass, diamond
etc.
• For this purpose, a suitable drilling tool bit
is fixed at the end of a powerful ultrasonic
generator.
• Some slurry (a thin paste of carborundum
powder and water) is made to flow
between the bit and the plate in which the
hole is to be made
• Ultrasonic generator causes the tool bit to
move up and down very quickly and the
slurry particles below the bit just remove
some material from the plate.
• This process continues and a hole is
drilled in the plate. 40
 (3) Ultrasonic welding
• The properties of some metals change on heating
and therefore, such metals cannot be welded by
electric or gas welding.
• In such cases, the metallic sheets are welded
together at room temperature by using ultrasonic
waves.
• For this purpose, a hammer H is attached to a
powerful ultrasonic generator as shown in Figure
• The metallic sheets to be welded are put together
under the tip of hammer H.
• The hammer is made to vibrate ultrasonically. As a result, it presses the
two metal sheets very rapidly and the molecules of one metal diffuse into
the molecules of the other.
• Thus, the two sheets get welded without heating. This process is known as
cold welding.
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(4) Ultrasonic soldering

• Metals like aluminium cannot be directly soldered.

• However, it is possible to solder such metals by ultrasonic
waves.
• An ultrasonic soldering iron consists of an ultrasonic generator
having a tip fixed at its end which can be heated by an
electrical heating element.
• The tip of the soldering iron melts solder on the aluminium and
the ultrasonic vibrator removes the aluminium oxide layer.
• The solder thus gets fastened to clear metal without any
difficulty.

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(5) Ultrasonic cutting and machining
Ultrasonic waves are used for cutting and machining.

(6) Ultrasonic cleaning

It is the most cheap technique employed for cleaning
various parts of the machine, electronic assembles,
armatures, watches etc., which cannot be easily cleaned by
other methods.

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 (7) SONAR
• SONAR is a technique which stands for Sound Navigation and
Ranging.
• It uses ultrasonics for the detection and identification of under water
objects.
• The method consists of sending a powerful beam of ultrasonics in the
suspected direction in water.
• By noting the time interval between the emission and receipt of beam
after reflection, the distance of the object can be easily calculated.
• The change in frequency of the echo signal due to the Dopper effect
helps to determine the velocity of the body and its direction.

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• Measuring the time interval (t) between the transmitted pulses
and the received pulse, the distance between the transmitter and
the remote object is determined using the formula., where v is
the velocity of sound in sea water.
vt
d 
2
• The same principle is used to find the depth of the sea.
Applications of SONAR

1. Sonar is used in the location of shipwrecks and submarines on

the bottom of the sea.
2. It is used for fish-finding application .
3. It is used for seismic survey.

PH0101 UNIT 1 LECTURE 6 45

Applications of Ultrasonics in Medicine
(1)Diagnostic sonography

• Medical sonography (ultrasonography) is an ultrasound-

based diagnostic medical imaging technique used to
visualize muscles, tendons, and many internal organs,
their size, structure and any pathological lesions.
• They are also used to visualize the foetus during routine
and emergency prenatal care. Ultrasound scans are
performed by medical health care professionals called
sonographers. Obstetric sonography is commonly used
during pregnancy.

PH0101 UNIT 1 LECTURE 6 46

Obstetric ultrasound is primarily used to:

• Date the pregnancy

• Check the location of the placenta
• Check for the number of fetuses
• Check for physical abnormities
• Check the sex of the baby
• Check for fetal movement, breathing, and heartbeat.

PH0101 UNIT 1 LECTURE 6 47

 (2)Ultrasound therapeutic applications

• Treating malignant tumors and other disorders, via a

process known as Focused Ultrasound Surgery (FUS)
or HIFU, High Intensity Focused Ultrasound.
These procedures generally use lower frequencies
than medical diagnostic ultrasound (from 250kHz to
2000kHz), but significantly higher time-averaged
intensities.

PH0101 UNIT 1 LECTURE 6 48

• More power ultrasound sources may be used to clean teeth in
dental hygiene or generate local heating in biological tissue, e.g.
in occupational therapy, physical therapy and cancer treatment.
• Extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy uses a powerful focused
ultrasound source to break up kidney stones.
• Focused ultrasound sources may be used for cataract treatment
by phacoemulsification.
• Doppler ultrasound is being tested for use in aiding tissue
plasminogen activator treatment in stroke sufferers. This
procedure is called Ultrasound-Enhanced Systemic
Thrombolysis.
• Ultrasound has been shown to act synergistically with
antibiotics in bacterial cell killing.

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 Some Other Applications of Ultrasonics
(1) Ultrasonic guidance for the blind

• Ultrasonic waves are used for guiding the blind who

carries a walking stick containing an ultrasonic
transmitter and receiver.

• Ultrasonic signals reflected from any obstacles are fed to

the head phones through a suitable electronic circuit
which enables the blind person to detect and estimate the
distance of the obstacle.

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 (2) Ultrasound in research
• Scientists often use in research, for instant to break up
high molecular weight polymers, thus creating new
plastic materials.
• Indeed, ultrasound also makes it possible to determine
the molecular weight of liquid polymers, and to conduct
other forms of investigation on the physical properties of
materials.
• Ultrasonic can also speed up certain chemical reactions.
Hence it has gained application in agriculture, that seeds
subjected to ultrasound may germinate more rapidly and
produce higher yields.

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