An engineering-oriented introduction to wave propagation by an award-winning MIT professor, with highly accessible expositions and mathematical details—many classical but others not heretofore published. A wave is a traveling disturbance or oscillation—intentional or unintentional—that usually transfers energy without a net displacement of the medium in which the energy travels. Wave propagation is any of the means by which a wave travels. This book offers an engineering-oriented introduction to wave propagation that focuses on wave propagation in one-dimensional models that are anchored by the classical wave equation. The text is written in a style that is highly accessible to undergraduates, featuring extended and repetitive expositions and displaying and explaining mathematical and physical details—many classical but others not heretofore published. The formulations are devised to provide analytical foundations for studying more advanced topics of wave propagation. After a precalculus summary of rudimentary wave propagation and an introduction of the classical wave equation, the book presents solutions for the models of systems that are dimensionally infinite, semi-infinite, and finite. Chapters typically begin with a vignette based on some aspect of wave propagation, drawing on a diverse range of topics. The book provides more than two hundred end-of-chapter problems (supplying answers to most problems requiring a numerical result or brief analytical expression). Appendixes cover equations of motion for strings, rods, and circular shafts; shear beams; and electric transmission lines.

Ground-breaking contribution to the literature, widely used by scientists, engineers, and students. Topics include theory of wave propagation in randomly inhomogeneous media, ray and wave theories of scattering at random inhomogeneities, more. 1960 edition.

Clear, coherent work for graduate-level study discusses the Maxwell field equations, radiation from wire antennas, wave aspects of radio-astronomical antenna theory, the Doppler effect, and more.

This completely updated second edition of an Artech House classic provides a thorough introduction to the basic principles of electromagnetic wave propagation of radio frequencies in real-world conditions, fully updated by including new achievements in theory and technology. It serves as an invaluable daily reference for practitioners in the field and as a complete, organized text on the subject. This comprehensive resource covers a wide range of essential topics, from the classification of radio waves, electromagnetic wave theory, and antennas for RF radio links, to the impact of the earth surface on the propagation of ground waves, atmospheric affects in radio wave propagation, and radio wave reception. The book explores the propagation of the ground radio waves, namely the waves that propagate in vicinity of the earth's surface (e.g., guided by that interface), without involvement of any atmospheric effects. Specifics of the high-frequency (HF) radio propagation due to reflections from ionospheric layers is studied, based on commonly used models of the ionospheric vertical profiles. Scattering of the radio waves of UHF and higher frequency bands from the random variations of the tropospheric refraction index (from tiny air turbulences) are also considered by using the principles of statistical radio-physics. Analysis of propagation conditions on real propagation paths, including analysis of the power budget of the VHF/UHF link to assure its stability (percentage of availability within observation time frame), terrestrial, broadcast, mobile, and satellite RF links are presented. The engineering design of the cellular networks, including LTE 4G, 5G and upcoming higher generations is explored. HF propagation predictions for extremely long-range links design for commercial and military applications are explained. Packed with examples and problems, this book provides a theoretical background for astrophysical, aeronomy and geophysical instrumentation design.

Earthquakes, a plucked string, ocean waves crashing on the beach, the sound waves that allow us to recognize known voices. Waves are everywhere, and the propagation and classical properties of these apparently disparate phenomena can be described by the same mathematical methods: variational calculus, characteristics theory, and caustics. Taking a medium-by-medium approach, Julian Davis explains the mathematics needed to understand wave propagation in inviscid and viscous fluids, elastic solids, viscoelastic solids, and thermoelastic media, including hyperbolic partial differential equations and characteristics theory, which makes possible geometric solutions to nonlinear wave problems. The result is a clear and unified treatment of wave propagation that makes a diverse body of mathematics accessible to engineers, physicists, and applied mathematicians engaged in research on elasticity, aerodynamics, and fluid mechanics. This book will particularly appeal to those working across specializations and those who seek the truly interdisciplinary understanding necessary to fully grasp waves and their behavior. By proceeding from concrete phenomena (e.g., the Doppler effect, the motion of sinusoidal waves, energy dissipation in viscous fluids, thermal stress) rather than abstract mathematical principles, Davis also creates a one-stop reference that will be prized by students of continuum mechanics and by mathematicians needing information on the physics of waves.

Propagation of Waves focuses on the wave propagation around the earth, which is influenced by its curvature, surface irregularities, and by passage through atmospheric layers that may be refracting, absorbing, or ionized. This book begins by outlining the behavior of waves in the various media and at their interfaces, which simplifies the basic phenomena, such as absorption, refraction, reflection, and interference. Applications to the case of the terrestrial sphere are also discussed as a natural generalization. Following the deliberation on the diffraction of the "ground wave around the earth, this text summarizes the role and properties of the troposphere and ionosphere from a general physical point of view. Examples and maps are provided to illustrate the use of the various methods in the determination of ranges or favorable wavelengths. A brief discussion on problems encountered in the field of space communications is also included. This publication is a good source for students and individuals researching on wave propagation, specifically on the principles of radiation and propagation in a homogeneous, isotropy, and lossless dielectric.

This book is concerned with the ionosphere and the magnetosphere, and the theory of their effect on radio waves. It includes accounts of some mathematical topics now widely used in this study, particularly W. K. B. approximations, Airy integral functions and integration by steepest descents. The subject is divided into ray theory and full wave theory. Ray theory is useful for high frequencies when the ionosphere is treated as a horizonally stratified medium. The discussion of the magnetosphere, whose structure is more complicated, includes an account of whistlers and ion cyclotron whistlers. The book has been planned both for final year undergraduates and as a reference book for research. It is suitable as a course book on radio propagation for students of physics or electrical engineering or mathematics. Some of the topics are presented from an elementary viewpoint so as to help undergraduates new to the subject. The later parts are more advanced. Because the subject is so large and has seen many important recent advances, some topics have had to be treated briefly, but there is a full bibliography with about 600 references.