Characteristics of the pulsed ultrasound field.

Pulsed ultrasound fields show some quantitative differences from continuous fields. In order to support the analysis of bioeffects of pulsed ultrasound fields these differences are characterized. For each observation point, the sound pulse is calculated by wavelet addition. The total pulse length has a maximum near the transducer surface, corresponding to large differences in acoustical pathlength from the surface elements. Accordingly, the spectrum varies strongly in the near field. In the far field, pulse-length and spectrum are almost constant as long as frequency-dependent absorption is negligible. The radiation field at each point is described by the time integral of sound intensity over one pulse (energy transport per unit area) and by the corresponding "dose" (absorbed energy per unit volume in one pulse). Differences between the spatial distributions of these two quantities are mainly detectable in the near field, which is also the region where differences between continuous and pulsed ultrasound (at the same centre frequency) are considerable.