Acoustic scattering by a sphere with a hemispherically split boundary condition

Abstract

A general analytical model is developed for the scattering of sound by a sphere with a nonuniform impedance boundary condition that is divided into two uniformly distributed hemispheres. In addition to the overall solution for the time harmonic pressure, the analytical result gives insight into the modal contributions and coupling for different cases of source incidence and boundary impedance. Modal cross coupling is shown to exist between incoming and scattered wave modes of equi-order and nonequal degree when the degrees are opposite in parity (odd-even or even-odd coupling). This cross coupling is strongest between modes of adjacent degree, and decreases as the degrees become dissimilar. The overall magnitude of the cross coupling is dependent on the extent of the impedance mismatch between the two surface hemispheres. Simulation and discussion are given for several specific cases of source incidence and impedance (each hemisphere is given a different constant impedance value). These results are consistent with expectations from the scattering of sound by a sphere with a uniformly distributed surface boundary. The broad scattering characteristics of the hemispherically divided sphere are shown to be analogous to connecting the appropriate sectors from the corresponding uniformly distributed spheres.