Effective T-matrix of a cylinder filled with a random two-dimensional particulate

Abstract

When a wave, such as sound or light, scatters within a densely packed particulate, it can be rescattered many times between the particles, which is called multiple scattering. Multiple scattering can be unavoidable when trying to use sound waves to measure a dense particulate, such as a composite with reinforcing fibres. Here, we solve from first principles multiple scattering of scalar waves, including acoustic, for any frequency from a set of two-dimensional particles confined in a circular area. This case has not been solved yet, and its solution is important to perform numerical validation, as particles within a cylinder require only a finite number of particles to perform direct numerical simulations. The method we use involves ensemble averaging over particle configurations, which leads us to deduce an effective T-matrix for the whole cylinder, which can be used to easily describe the scattering from any incident wave. In the specific case when the particles are monopole scatterers, the expression of this effective T-matrix simplifies and reduces to the T-matrix of a homogeneous cylinder with an effective wavenumber k ⋆ . To validate our theoretical predictions, we develop an efficient Monte Carlo method and conclude that our theoretical predictions are highly accurate for a broad range of frequencies.