 Solution

An acoustic analogy is an exact rearrangement of the fluid equations into a chosen linear propagation operator acting on an acoustic variable, with everything left over placed on the right as effective forcing. The rearrangement becomes a sound-prediction method only after a reference medium, boundary conditions and approximations to the forcing are specified. In particular, a right-hand-side term need not represent independently generated sound.

Use Einstein summation convention and write ${\partial }_i=\partial /\partial x_i$. Differentiating the continuity equation in time and taking the divergence of the momentum equation eliminates ${\partial }_t(\rho u_i)$:Set $q=p-{\hat{p}}_0$ and $W_{ij}=\rho u_i{u}_j-{\sigma }_{ij}$. Since $p+\chi =q+P$, the constant $P$ has zero Laplacian. The prescribed reference mass density and reference speed of sound are independent of time, soCombining the two identities givesOnly conservation of mass and conservation of momentum have been used; no equation of state or energy equation was needed. Spatial variation of ${\hat{c}}_0$ creates no omitted derivative in this identity, because it multiplies a time derivative. The double divergence of the momentum flux tensor has the structure of an acoustic quadrupole.

For a localized flow, choose the reference fields to match the stationary surrounding medium: ${\hat{\rho }}_0={\rho }_0$ and ${\hat{c}}_0^2=c_0^2$ outside the flow, with $P$ chosen so ${\hat{p}}_0=p_0$ there. A uniform surrounding fluid permits ambient constant mass density and adiabatic sound speed, giving the familiar homogeneous wave equation. A nonuniform surrounding fluid calls for its actual stationary reference profiles, extended sensibly through the flow region. This makes the acoustic variable vanish in the unperturbed exterior and minimizes artificial contrast terms. In a uniform isentropic exterior the leading acoustic relation $p^{\prime }=c_0^2{\rho }^{\prime }$ also makes $Q$ vanish to first order. In a stratified exterior, propagation and entropy-advection effects can remain in $Q$, as the next part demonstrates.