The importance of expanding Green's functions, particularly free-space Green's functions, in terms of orthogonal wave functions is practically self-evident when frequency domain scattering problems are of interest. With the relatively recent and widespread interest in time domain scattering problems, similar expansions of Green's functions are expected to be useful in the time domain. In this paper, two alternative expressions, expanded in terms of orthogonal spherical wave functions, for the free-space time domain scalar Green's functions are presented. Although the two expressions are equivalent, one of them is seen to be more convenient for the calculation of the scattered field for a known equivalent source density, whereas the second expression is more suitable for setting up an integral equation for the equivalent source density. Such an integral equation may be setup, for example, by the application of a time domain equivalent of the T-matrix ͑extended boundary condition͒ method.

No abstract

Two formulations for determining the characteristics of an unknown source of acoustic waves using the measurement of its field at its near zone are presented. The measurement in both cases is to be performed on a spherical scan surface which encapsulates the source. The first is for an ideal probe which measures the field at its location. The knowledge of the field is sufficient; its normal derivative is not required. In the second formulation a realistic probe is considered. This time it is required only that the probe has an axially symmetric receiving characteristic. With this formulation, the time functions which characterize the source are found using only the signal at the output of the probe. Both formulations are such that they are not specific to the scan surface radius. Furthermore, they are entirely in the time domain, requiring no inverse Fourier transformations left to be performed.

No abstract

No abstract