Multiple scattering in bubbly media: Highlighting the role played by interactions between neighboring bubbles

Abstract

A bubble in water exhibits a low-frequency monopolar acoustic resonance, the so-called Minnaert resonance, which makes an assembly of such bubbles an ideal system to study multiple scattering of ultrasound. Following Foldy’s seminal work, various approaches, such as the ones by Keller or Waterman and Truell, have been developed to infer the effective acoustic properties of a bubble cloud. Here, we confront the predictions of these different approaches with numerical results obtained with a multiple scattering theory (MST) code that fully incorporates the multiple scattering effects. Based on this study, we show the importance to take into account the interactions between neighboring bubbles to predict the behavior of a bubble sample. Finally, we demonstrate how the introduction of a local order can affect the effective parameters and allows interesting transmission properties.