DIFRENTIAL EQUATION OF

THREE DIMENSIONAL
WAVES MOTION
CONTENT

WAVE EQUATION
The wave equation is a hyperbolic partial
differential equation. It typically
concerns a time variable t, one or more
spatial variables x1, x2, ,xn, and a scalar
function u = u (x1, x2, , xn; t), whose
values could model, for example, the
mechanical displacement of a wave. The
wave equation for u is

where2 is the (spatial) Laplacian and c

is a fixed constant.
Solutions of this equation describe
propagation of disturbances out from the
region at a fixed speed in one or in all

spatial directions, as do physical waves from plane or

localized sources; the constant c is identified with the
propagation speed of the wave. This equation is linear.
Therefore, the sum of any two solutions is again a
solution: in physics this property is called the
superposition principle.
The wave equation alone does not specify
a physical solution; a unique solution is
usually obtained by setting a problem
with further conditions, such as initial
conditions, which prescribe the amplitude
and phase of the wave. Another important
class of problems occurs in enclosed
spaces specified by boundary conditions,
for which the solutions represent standing
waves, or harmonics, analogous to the harmonics of
musical instruments.

THREE DIMENSION

1.of, having, or relating to three dimensions: threedimensional space

2.simulating the effect of depth by presenting slightly
different views of a scene to each eye (of a film,
transparency, etc)
3.having volume

4.lifelike or real
French scientist Jean-Baptiste le Rondd'Alembert (b. 1717) discovered the wave
equation in one space
dimensions

WAVE MOTION
Wave Motion is devoted to the cross fertilization of ideas,
and to stimulating interaction between workers in various
research areas in which wave propagation phenomena
play a dominant role. The description and analysis of
wave propagation phenomena provides a
unifying thread connecting diverse areas
of engineering and the physical sciences
such as acoustics, optics, geophysics,
seismology, electromagnetic theory,
solid and fluid mechanics.
The journal publishes papers on
analytical, numerical and experimental methods. Papers
that address fundamentally new topics in wave
phenomena or develop wave propagation methods for
solving direct and inverse problems are of interest to the
journal.

WAVE MOTION BY A.N.NORRIS

Three-dimensional Waves
We can generalize the differential wave equation to
three dimensions by noting that the space variables
should appear symmetrically. That is, the equation
should not change if we interchange the space
variables, as long as the coordinate system remains
right-handed. In any event

is the appropriate three-dimensional form in

Cartesian coordinates. The particular solutions of
most concern to us in our study of optics are those
associated with plane and spherical waves.
We now write the equation for a plane passing
through an arbitrary point (x0, y0, z0) and
perpendicular to a given direction delineated by the
propagation vector k, as in figure A. The vector
will sweep out the desired plane provided that

This is the equation of a plane

and so

is a function defined on a family

of planes all perpendicular to k.
Over each of these
, and so (r) is a
constant. As we move from plane to plane, (r)
varies sinusoidally. As before, to convert this into a
progressive harmonic plane wave, we simply rewrite
it as
or
The minus sign corresponds to motion in the
positive k-direction, the plus sign to motion in the
negative k-direction.

The form of the harmonic spherical wave is most

easily arrived at by solving the differential wave
equation in spherical coordinates. That procedure
leads to

where the constant A is known as the source

strength. Observe that the amplitude A/r varies
inversely with distance from the origin. This is a
requirement of energy conservation. Again, the
minus and plus signs in the phase respectively
correspond to waves diverging from and converging
toward the origin. The expression at any instant
represents a cluster of concentric spheres, over each
of which r is constant and therefore (r,t) is constant.
Instead of a harmonic wave we could equally well
have considered a spherical or planar pulse. For
example, imagine a point source which, rather than
oscillating harmonically, just turns on, builds up, and
then shuts off. The disturbance, although short-lived,
would move out in all directions as a spherical pulse
of some sort.

THREE DIMENSIONAL SCHRODINGER

EQUATION

Partial Differential Equations in Three

Dimensional Space
At last we have ascended the
dimensional ladder to its ultimate rung (at
least for those of us living in a threedimensional universe): partial differential
equations in physical space. As in the one
and two-dimensional settings developed
in the preceding chapters, the three key
examples are the three-dimensional
Laplace equation, modeling equilibrium
configurations of solid bodies, the threedimensional wave equation, governing
vibrations of solids, liquids, gasses, and
electromagnetic waves, and the threedimensional heat equation, modeling
basic spatial diffusion processes.

Fortunately, almost everything of

importance has already appeared in the
one- and two-dimensional situations, and
appending a third dimension is, for the
most part, simply a matter of app
ropriately adapting the constructions. We
have already seen the basic underlying
solution techniques: separation of
variables and Greens functions or
fundamental solutions. (Unfortunately,
the most powe r of our planar tools,
conformal mapping, does not carry over
to higher dimensions.) In threedimensional problems, separation of
variables is applicable in rectangular,
cylindrical and spherical coordinates. The
first two do not produce anything
fundamentally new, and are therefore
relegated to the exercises. Separation in
spherical coordinates leads to spherical
harmonics and spherical Bessel functions,
whose properties are investigated in
some detail. These new special functions

play important roles in a number of

physical systems, including the quantum
theory of atomic structure that underlies
the spectral and chemical properties of
atoms. The Greens function for the threedimensional Poisson equation in space
can be identified as the classic Newtonian
(and Coulomb) 1/r potential. The
fundamental solution for the threedimensional heat equation can be easily
guessed from its one- and twodimensional versions. The threedimensional wave equation, surprisingly,
has an explicit, although more intricate,
solution formula of dAlembert form, due
to Poisson. Paradoxically, the best way to
treat the two-dimensional version is by
descending from the simpler threedimensional formula. This result
highlights a remarkable difference
between waves in planar and spacial
media. In three-dimensions, Huygens
principle states that waves emanating

from a localized
initial disturbance
remain localized
they propagate
through space. In
contrast, in two
dimensions,
initially concentrated
pulses leave a slowly
decaying remnant that
never entirely
disappears.

as

A three-dimensional analysis of marine radar

images for the determination of ocean wave
directionality and surface currents
Description
A series of spatial wave images recorded by a conventional marine radar is analyzed to
determine the three-dimensional E(kx, ky, ) spectrum. In the absence of a surface current
the spectral energy in this three-dimensional wave number frequency space will lie on a shell
defined by the dispersion relationship. Any deviation from the expected dispersion relationship
can be interpreted as being due to a current induced Doppler shift of the wave frequency. A
least squares curve fitting technique is used to determine the surface current required to
account for the observed Doppler shift. A comparison of the radar determined spectra and
surface currents with ground truth data indicates that the radar system and analysis technique
produces results consistent with conventional instrumentation.

Three-dimensional millimeter-wave
imaging for concealed weapon detection
Millimeter-wave imaging techniques and systems have been developed at the Pacific
Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA, for the detection of concealed
weapons and contraband at airports and other secure locations. These techniques were
derived from microwave holography techniques that utilize phase and amplitude
information recorded over a two-dimensional aperture to reconstruct a focused image of
the target. Millimeter-wave imaging is well suited for the detection of concealed
weapons or other contraband carried on personnel since millimeter-waves are
nonionizing, readily penetrate common clothing material, and are reflected from the
human body and any concealed items. In this paper, a wide-bandwidth threedimensional holographic microwave imaging technique is described. Practical weapon
detection systems for airport or other high-throughput applications require high-speed
scanning on the order of 3 to 10 s. To achieve this goal, a prototype imaging system
utilizing a 27-33 GHz linear sequentially switched array and a high-speed linear scanner
has been developed and tested. This system is described in detail along with numerous
imaging results
Published in: Published in:
IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques
Freak WavesA Three-Dimensional Wave Simulation

K.Trulsen, K.Dysthe (University of Bergen, Norway)

Abstract

We seek to understand the occurrence of so-called freak waves,

extremely large and steep ocean surface waves. Our basic
assumption is that these waves can be produced by nonlinear self
modulation of a slowly modulated wave train. A field experimental
record of a freak wave event is presented, and is shown to comply
with a description as a weakly nonlinear band-limited process.
However, existing models for weakly nonlinear, slowly modulated
surface gravity waves, i.e. the third order nonlinear Schrdinger
equation and the fourth order modified nonlinear Schrdinger
equation, do not have sufficient resolution in bandwidth. We thus

extend the modified nonlinear Schrdinger equation by relaxing the

narrow bandwidth constraint to make it more suitable for application
to a realistic ocean wave spectrum. A split-step Fourier collocation
method is discussed for the numerical solution of the new equation.

CFD simulation of 3-dimensional motion of a ship in

waves: application to an advancing ship in regular
heading waves
A new computational fluid dynamics simulation method has been developed for the unsteady
motion of a ship advancing in waves. The objective is to evaluate the added resistance and
predict the performance of a ship in waves. In this study, a finite volume method, in the
framework of a boundary-fitted grid system, is employed. The motion of the ship is solved with
six degrees of freedom by using the hydrodynamic forces and moments obtained from the
solution of the simulation method. The markerdensityfunction method is employed to
calculate the nonlinear free surface. This method is applied to the coupled motion problem of
heaving and pitching.

Transition to Three-dimensional Waves in Cocurrent Gas-liquid Flows

Transition to Three-dimensional Waves in Cocurrent Gasliquid Flows W. C. Kuru, M. Sangalli and M. J. McCready
Abstract The transition from two-dimensional to threedimensional waves on the interface of a gas-liquid flow in
a horizontal channel is studied experimentally. It is found
that there are two different mechanisms for this
transition. For sufficiently thin films or sufficiently low
liquid Reynolds number, the transition occurs by localized
defects becoming large enough to disrupt the wave field.
For deeper layers, the transition occurs by formation of
oblique modes that can form a regular herringbone
pattern which becomes irregular with increasing shear.
Linear stability analysis, through the use of a Squire
transformation, indicates that the observed transverse
modes are unstable. However neither linear analysis nor
a set of weakly-viscous, weakly-nonlinear mode
interaction equations can predict the preferred
wavelength

Three-dimensional broadband
ground-plane cloak made of
metamaterials
Since invisibility cloaks were first suggested by transformation optics theory, there has been
much work on the theoretical analysis and design of various types and a few experimental
verifications at microwave and optical frequencies within two-dimensional limits. Here, we
realize the first practical implementation of a fully 3D broadband and low-loss ground-plane
cloak at microwave frequencies. The cloak, realized by drilling inhomogeneous holes in multilayered dielectric plates, can conceal a 3D object located under a curved conducting plane from
all viewing angles by imitating the reflection of a flat conducting plane. We also designed and
realized, using non-resonant metamaterials, a high-gain lens antenna that can produce narrow-

beam plane waves in the near-field region in a broad frequency band. The antenna constitutes the
transmitter of the measurement system and is essential for the measurement of cloaking
behaviour.

Medical ultrasound

Medical ultrasound (also known as diagnostic sonography or ultrasonography) is

a diagnostic imaging technique based on the application of ultrasound. It is used to see internal
body structures such as tendons, muscles, joints, vessels and internal organs. Its aim is often to
find a source of a disease or to exclude any pathology. The practice of
examining pregnant women using ultrasound is called obstetric ultrasound, and is widely used.
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies which are higher than those audible to humans
(>20,000 Hz). Ultrasonic images also known as sonograms are made by sending pulses of
ultrasound into tissue using a probe. The sound echoes off the tissue; with different tissues
reflecting varying degrees of sound. These echoes are recorded and displayed as an image to
the operator.
Orthogonal planes of a 3 dimensional sonographic volume with
transverse and coronal measurements for estimating fetal cranial
volume