A geometric acoustics approach to the study of sound propagation in ducts containing sheared flows

Geometric acoustics has been used to study the propagation of sound waves in a homogeneous moving medium with sheared flow bounded by the hard walls of a duct. Differential equations describing the ray trajectories and the spreading losses along each ray were developed and solved numerically for a range of centerline Mach numbers and shear boundary-layer thicknesses. Results were obtained which show the effects of upstream and downstream sound propagation on the ray paths. A method was also developed to allow the calculation of intensity loss profiles at specified downstream cross sections of the duct.