4.

2 Zone Construction of Sound Fields 65

/./
./ ./
./

a·J

I \

\ /

Fig. 4.12. Path difference between two elementary waves for the case
of a distant point of observation
Fig.4.13. Zonal strip with path differences of ).12 at DIA = 16 and
with y = 20°

squares in a drawing of the system on millimetre graph paper and the method is
then not limited to circular radiator surfaces.
Ifthe point of observation off the axis moves to infinity, the phase difference for
two points of the radiator surface depends only on the angle y at which this point
appears relative to the axis (Fig. 4.12). The ring system from a distant viewpoint
then appears as a system of parallel strips which, for a given path difference Ill, have
the distance b = Ill/sin y. If a path difference of half a wavelength is chosen, two ad-
jacent strips will cancel each other at the point of observation if their areas are
equal. Such a system is shown in Fig.4.13 for the conditions: DI)" = 16, angle
y = 20°.
It can be seen that the black strips are in practice almost completely counterbal-
anced by the white strips, so that nothing, or almost nothing, is left in this direc-
tion. This explains the directivity of the radiator in the far-field. At small angles the
strips become wider and the total area of the white strips may then greatly exceed
that of the black strips, the condition corresponding to the main maximum of the
radiation.
As shown above the sound field may be changed by varying the transit-time dif-
ferences between individual zones. This can be done by using a curved oscillator
for which the fringe zones have the same sound path to a certain observation point
as have the central ones and we obtain thereby a focussed source. With a Fresnel
lens (Fig. 3.11 and [1498, 1499]) the transit-time differences arise from different ve-
locities in the lens material compared with air and by the varying thickness of dif-
ferent sections of the lens. With a zone lens (Fig. 4.36 d, see also [1279]) certain an-
nular zones suppress the wave. Finally it is possible to divide the whole oscillator
into distinct and separated domains, which are excited electrically by voltages with
appropriate phase shifts to produce specially selected beam characteristics (see Sec-
tion 1004.1, phased arrays).
With the exception of the first solution, viz. using a curved oscillator, the other
methods are only effective if the wave train is sufficiently long to produce the ne-
cessary phase shifts with equal amplitudes.