A theoretical study of ultrasonic wave transmission through a fluid–solid interface

This article develops a model for the study of the transient ultrasonic waves radiated by a transducer in a liquid and transmitted into a solid through a plane interface. The method is an extension to the transient case, of the angular spectrum method previously developed for the monochromatic case. It is based on the decomposition of the ultrasonic field, in impulse plane waves. The radiated waveform is calculated at any point in the field by a simple summation of these impulse plane waves, where the propagation delay and the refraction have been taken into account. These plane waves are, first of all, delayed by an amount of time corresponding to the travel time up to the considered field point. The transmission through the plane interface is taken into account by using Snell refraction laws and transmission coefficients. In the obtained results all the waves previously described by other authors are highlighted: direct wave, edge waves, head waves as well as subsurface waves with a clear resolution between compression and shear waves.