Average acoustic pulse dispersion length in condensed matter channels

This paper is concerned with 'a probing pulse' propagating in an inhomogeneous condensed state medium. The pulse expands as it travels. This expansion may be correlated to a material-characteristic dimension-such as the size of a grain or of a free path between scattering sites or of a domain-which is a random variable with a mean denoted as g(s). Moreover, we may ascribe to the propagation a loss constant which is proportional to g(s). The process derives from the fact that, for a relatively large number of scattering sites, it is possible to model the propagation media in terms of a repetitive electrical network. The model supports a Gaussian (bell shape) impulse response and defines g(s). Both theoretical and experimental (ultrasonic) results are provided. The experimental method is relatively fast to perform and the results are highly reproducible.