Acoustic scattering cancellation of irregular objects surrounded by spherical layers in the resonant regime

In this work, acoustic scattering cancellation is expanded to cases of acoustic waves interacting with non-spherical elastic objects and collections of closely packed objects. The proposed method for achieving this is by using spherical fluid layers to represent the objects as effective spherical targets, with multiple fluid layers and an elastic core, for which scattering cancellation is used to determine the necessary layer properties. Three representative objects are considered here to illustrate this approach: a sphere with dimples, a sphere with bumps, and a bicone. Theoretical results are presented for each of the non-spherical objects in water, which indicate a reduction of 30–40 dB in scattering strength when coated with a two-layer fluid cancellation shell. This cancellation is achieved for objects in the resonant scattering regime, which is characterized by constructive and destructive interference patterns that arise from higher scattering modes. The analytical results are verified using three-dimensional finite element simulations.