Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics [Hardcover]

David T. Blackstock (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471319791 | ISBN-13: 978-0471319795 | Publication Date: February 22, 2000 | Edition: 1

AN AUTHORITATIIVE, UP-TO-DATE INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL ACOUSTICS

Easy to read and understand, Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics fills a long-standing need for an acoustics text that challenges but does not overpower graduate students in engineering and physics. Mathematical results and physical explanations go hand in hand, and a unique feature of the book is the balance it strikes between time-domain and frequency-domain presentations.

Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics is intended for a two-semester, first-year graduate course, but is also suitable for advanced undergraduates. Emphasis on plane waves in the first part of the book keeps the mathematics simple yet accommodates a broad range of topics: propagation, reflection and transmission, normal modes and simple waveguides for rectilinear geometries, horns, inhomogeneous media, and sound absorption and dispersion.

The second part of the book is devoted to a more rigorous development of the wave equation, spherical and cylindrical waves (including the more advanced mathematics required), advanced waveguides, baffled piston radiation, diffraction (treated in the time domain), and arrays. Applications and examples are drawn from:
* Atmospheric acoustics
* Noise control
* Underwater acoustics
* Engineering acoustics
* Acoustical measurements


Supplemented with more than 300 graphs and figures as well as copious end-of-chapter problems, Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics is also an excellent professional reference for engineers and scientists.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is an excellent piece of work. The text is extremely clear and goes a long way towards meeting the declared pedagogical target. The author has written a comprehensive text. The proportions of the equations and explanations/interpretations are particularly well balanced. Throughout the book, the context and the validity domain for any equation derived are clearly stated. No doubt this book will be of invaluable help for students, academics, and engineers." (Applied Acoustics, March 2002)

From the Back Cover

AN AUTHORITATIIVE, UP-TO-DATE INTRODUCTION TO PHYSICAL ACOUSTICS

Easy to read and understand, Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics fills a long-standing need for an acoustics text that challenges but does not overpower graduate students in engineering and physics. Mathematical results and physical explanations go hand in hand, and a unique feature of the book is the balance it strikes between time-domain and frequency-domain presentations.

Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics is intended for a two-semester, first-year graduate course, but is also suitable for advanced undergraduates. Emphasis on plane waves in the first part of the book keeps the mathematics simple yet accommodates a broad range of topics: propagation, reflection and transmission, normal modes and simple waveguides for rectilinear geometries, horns, inhomogeneous media, and sound absorption and dispersion.

The second part of the book is devoted to a more rigorous development of the wave equation, spherical and cylindrical waves (including the more advanced mathematics required), advanced waveguides, baffled piston radiation, diffraction (treated in the time domain), and arrays. Applications and examples are drawn from:

• Atmospheric acoustics
• Noise control
• Underwater acoustics
• Engineering acoustics
• Acoustical measurements

Supplemented with more than 300 graphs and figures as well as copious end-of-chapter problems, Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics is also an excellent professional reference for engineers and scientists.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 1 edition (February 22, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471319791
• ISBN-13: 978-0471319795
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.3 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #115,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #49 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Acoustics & Sound

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Physical Acoustics-Dr. Blackstock, March 22, 2000

By 

Guillermo Aldana (Austin,Tx) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics (Hardcover)

Dr. Blackstock is one of the most lucid technical writers I have encoutered in my (long) career as a phd candidate at UT-Austin Acoustics. If you are trying to understand physical acoustics there is no better book. Kinsler and Frey is weak in comparison. From this book, one can easily step up to Morse's classic Vibration and Sound, or even Theoretical Acoustics with out a flinch. This book is definetely a must have on your personal library.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book, April 27, 2005

By 

Ricardo Queirós (Lisbon, Portugal) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics (Hardcover)

I think this is one of the best books on Physical Acoustics.
I would recommend this book to anyone starting to learn acoustics. This statement does not mean that advanced students should not go for this book, as it also covers advanced materials.

My opinion about the book can resumed as follows:

- Clear and concise
- Very good presentation
- Relatively easy to follow
- Very good for self-studying (plan to study the book is recommended by the author)
- There is a derivation (or instructions on how to get) to almost every equation in the book.
- Not too theoretical. Many practical interpretations of the mathematical results are given. (percentage of mathematics well balanced)
- The author makes apparently difficult material simple!

From this book one can jump to more advanced texts (Theoretical Acoustics by Morse and Ingard and Acoustics - An Introduction to its Physical Principles and Applications by Pierce).

Fundamentals of Acoustics by Kinsler et al is also a good book for a beginner, but I think this one is much better.

Moral of the story, I really like this book!

Ps: This is an opinion of a beginner on Physical Acoustics more interested in air applications, that never had lessons about this topic. I don't know if my opinion will change as my knowledge on this field increases:) I doubt it!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A fairly practical book for a complex topic, December 7, 2006

By 

Reviewer (Near Columbus, OH United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics (Hardcover)

I knew I liked this book when I read section C of the introduction:

"How is the wave equation derived? Three common physical systems that carry waves - the electrical transmission line, the flexible string, and the compressible fluid - are considered in this section."

I needed a practical book to help me when I somehow volunteered myself to perform some acoustic experiments at work. They kind of said "Hey, you're a physicist. Can you do this?" And then I said "Uh... sure." I read through what I could find in Halliday and Resnick, a book I like for its simplicity. But then I needed something more complicated, so I bought Morse and Ingard, which was way too much. Then I found this book.

And its a good thing I did. The book uses the wave equation to solve each of these problems, and if you pay attention, you can assemble a nice, general approach to solving problems of this nature, and you'll have a list of analogous variables when you're done. The whole book is written like this. It's not an ASM Handbook by any means, but it is more practical than Morse and Ingard, has more drawings and diagrams, and I was surprised to find one of the cleanest, simplest descriptions of Bessel functions I've seen yet. The book addresses the complex problems without doing endless integrals, and it whenever possible it works through the problem and doesn't rely on phrases like "the reduction of step X to step Y is left as an exercise for the student" in its derivations. I appreciate this - it makes the book more friendly as a reference text.

Also, when I was a graduate student I never paid attention to literature references in text books because I (naively) considered them to be outdated. But a literature search is one of the best tools I have available to me in the working world - if you have access to a literature database, you will find the literature references at the end of some chapters to be very useful.

Consider it a useful reference text, and probably a practical textbook as well.