Numerical Analysis of Ultrasonic Multiple Scattering for Fine Dust Number Density Estimation

Abstract

In this study, a method is presented for estimating the number density of fine dust particles (the number of particles per unit area) through numerical simulations of multiply scattered ultrasonic wavefields. The theoretical background of the multiple scattering of ultrasonic waves under different regimes is introduced. A series of numerical simulations were performed to generate multiply scattered ultrasonic wavefield data. The generated datasets are subsequently processed using an ultrasound data processing approach to estimate the number density of fine dust particles in the air based on the independent scattering approximation theory. The data processing results demonstrate that the proposed approach can estimate the number density of fine dust particles with an average error of 43.4% in the frequency band 1–10 MHz (wavenumber × particle radius ≤ 1) at a particle volume fraction of 1%. Several other factors that affect the accuracy of the number density estimation are also presented.