Stokes's law of sound attenuation in the context of "Plane wave"

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⭐ Core Definition: Stokes's law of sound attenuation

In acoustics, Stokes's law of sound attenuation is a formula for the attenuation of sound in a Newtonian fluid, such as water or air, due to the fluid's viscosity. It states that the amplitude of a plane wave decreases exponentially with distance traveled, at a rate α given bywhere η is the dynamic viscosity coefficient of the fluid, ω is the sound's angular frequency, ρ is the fluid density, and V is the speed of sound in the medium.

The law and its derivation were published in 1845 by the Anglo-Irish physicist G. G. Stokes, who also developed Stokes's law for the friction force in fluid motion. A generalisation of Stokes attenuation taking into account the effect of thermal conductivity was proposed by the German physicist Gustav Kirchhoff in 1868.

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Stokes's law of sound attenuation in the context of Acoustic attenuation

In acoustics, acoustic attenuation is a measure of the energy loss of sound propagation through an acoustic transmission medium. Most media have viscosity and are therefore not ideal media. When sound propagates in such media, there is always thermal consumption of energy caused by viscosity. This effect can be quantified through the Stokes's law of sound attenuation. Sound attenuation may also be a result of heat conductivity in the media as has been shown by G. Kirchhoff in 1868. The Stokes-Kirchhoff attenuation formula takes into account both viscosity and thermal conductivity effects.

For heterogeneous media, besides media viscosity, acoustic scattering is another main reason for removal of acoustic energy. Acoustic attenuation in a lossy medium plays an important role in many scientific researches and engineering fields, such as medical ultrasonography, vibration and noise reduction.

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