Fast prediction of scattered sound field based on Fourier diffraction theory under second-order born approximation

The directional pattern of sound waves scattered from an object insonified by a plane wave can be efficiently predicted using the Fourier diffraction theorem (FDT). This is achieved by sampling a circle in the discrete Fourier transform of the object/medium distribution. However, the FDT-based approach under the first-order Born approximation is only applicable to weak scattering. To improve the prediction accuracy and expand the method’s scope of applications, we introduce a second-order correction term to the solution, which is obtained by taking the first-order scattered waves as secondary incident sources, and calculate the “scattering” in the same way as in the first-order FDT-based approach. Adding the resulting correction term to the directional pattern based on the first-order Born approximation, the second-order prediction is obtained. Numerical results show that the proposed method can provide improved directional patterns of the scattered waves, and the range of applicability is significantly expanded.