Review for the acoustics qualifying exam

This website served as a creative way for me to take ownership of my studies and get a "big picture" of acoustics in preparation for my qualifying exam in summer 2023. A PDF version of this website is available here.

Contents

  1. Physical acoustics
    1. What is a wave?
    2. Detailed development of the acoustic wave equation
    3. Reflection and transmission for normal incidence
    4. Impedance tubes and \(k\ell\ll 1\) impedances
    5. \(R\)-\(T\) for oblique incidence
    6. Normal modes in Cartesian coordinates
    7. Horns
    8. Sound in stratified media
    9. Absorption and dispersion
    10. Spherical waves
    11. Cylindrical waves
    12. Waveguides
    13. Diffraction
    14. Arrays
  2. Ultrasonics
    1. Elasticity
    2. Derivation of elastic wave equation
    3. Reflection and transmission
    4. Rayleigh waves
    5. Waves in plates
    6. Signal processing
  3. Nonlinear acoustics
    1. Linear lossy, nonlinear exact, nonlinear approximate, and Burgers equations
    2. Rankine-Hugoniot relations, weak shock theory, radiation force, and acoustic streaming
  4. Math
    1. Review of basics
    2. Taylor series
    3. Fourier series and transforms
    4. Linear algebra
    5. Ordinary differential equations
    6. Orthogonality and special functions
    7. Vector algebra
    8. Vector calculus
    9. Partial differential equations

Additional resources