Measurement and simulation of acoustic radiation force on a planar reflector.

The accurate calculation of the acoustic radiation force is important for ultrasonic application techniques. Usually, the acoustic radiation force can be divided into the near-field and the far-field force according to the ratio of the emitter-reflector distance to the wavelength. In this study, appropriate theories and methods are explored to simulate the far-field and the near-field acoustic radiation force exerted on a planar reflector. The comparison between simulation and experiment indicates that the far-field force is not sensitive to the boundary shape and size while the near-field force is highly sensitive to the boundary size. Only the acoustic model with the minimized boundary size could yield the near-field force consistent with the experiment. Further calculations reveal that the far-field force first increases and then decreases with the rise of the reflector radius, and that the near-field force fluctuates with the acoustic frequency, especially when the emitter-reflector distance is very small. The near-field repulsive force can be changed into the attractive force when the acoustic frequency is lowered. (C) 2014 Acoustical Society of America.