Measuring sound velocity based on acoustic resonance using multiple narrow band transducers

Na Li; Zihao Chen; Jiejun Zhu; Mi Hyun Choi; Jin Yang; Zhen Yuan; Lei Sun; Chunlong Fei; Zhihai Qiu

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14227

Measuring sound velocity based on acoustic resonance using multiple narrow band transducers

Heliyon. 2023 Mar 1;9(3):e14227. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14227. eCollection 2023 Mar.

Authors

Na Li^{1

2}, Zihao Chen^{1

2}, Jiejun Zhu², Mi Hyun Choi³, Jin Yang^{2

4}, Zhen Yuan⁵, Lei Sun⁶, Chunlong Fei¹, Zhihai Qiu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ School of Microelectronics, Xidian University, Xi'an; Guangdong Institute of Intelligence Science and Technology, Hengqin, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519031, China.
² Guangdong Institute of Intelligence Science and Technology, Hengqin, Zhuhai, Guangdong 519031, China.
³ Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, CA, USA.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Opto-Electronics Information Technology, Ministry of Education, School of Precision In-strument & Opto-Electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China.
⁵ Faculty of Health Sciences, Centre for Cognitive and Brain Sciences, University of Macau, Macau SAR China.
⁶ Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Hong Kong SAR, PR China.

Abstract

The sound velocity in a medium is closely related to its material properties, including its composition, structure, density, pressure, and temperature. Various methods have been developed to determine the sound velocity through materials. Among them, a strategy based on ultrasound resonance frequency has been most widely used due to the simplicity. However, it requires a transducer with a wide bandwidth to cover enough resonance frequencies to perform the consequent calculations. In this paper, we develop a resonance method for measuring sound velocity, using multi-frequency narrow-band transducers breaking through the limitation of transducer bandwidth on the utilization of the resonance method. We use different transducers at different center frequencies and with different bandwidth to measure the sound velocity in 100-μm and 400-μm thick steel pieces. The measurement results of different combinations are in good agreement, verifying that the use of multi-frequency narrow-band transducer combinations. Given that most therapeutic transducers have a narrow bandwidth, this method can be used during intracranial ultrasound stimulation to optimize targeting by non-invasively measuring the sound velocity in the skull, especially at thinner locations.

Keywords: Multiple frequencies; Multiple ultrasound transducers; Resonance frequency; Sound velocity measurement.