The traditional acoustic attenuation coefficient is derived from an analogy of the attenuation of an electromagnetic wave propagating inside a non-ideal medium, featuring only the attenuation of wave propagation. Nonetheless, the particles inside viscous solids have mass, vibrating energy, viscosity, and inertia of motion, and they go through transient and damping attenuation processes. Based on the long-wavelength approximation, in this paper, we use the energy conservation law to analyze the effect of the viscosity of the medium on acoustic attenuation. We derive the acoustic attenuation coefficient by combinations of the dynamical equation of a solid in an acoustic field with conventional longitudinal wave propagation under a spring oscillator model. Considering the attenuation of propagating waves and the damping attenuation of particle vibration, we develop a frequency dispersion relation of phase velocity for the longitudinal wave propagating inside viscous solid media. We find that the acoustic impulse response and vibrational system function depends on the physical properties of the viscous solid media and their internal structure. Combined with system function, the impulse response can be an excellent tool to invert the physical properties of solids and their internal structures. We select a well-known rock sample for analysis, calculate the impulse response and vibrational system function, and reveal new physical insight into creating acoustic attenuation and frequency dispersion of phase velocity. The results showed that the newly developed acoustic attenuation coefficients enjoy a substantial improvement over the conventional acoustic attenuation coefficients reported in the literature, which is essential for industrial applications; so are the dispersion characteristics.

We report on a transient response model of thin cylindrical piezoelectric transducers used in the petroleum logging tools, parallel to a recently established transient response model of thin spherical-shell transducers. Established on a series of parallel-connected equivalent-circuits, this model provides insightful information on the physical characteristics of the thin cylindrical piezoelectric transducers, i.e., the transient response, center-frequency, and directivity of the transducer. We have developed a measurement system corresponding to the new model to provide a state-of-the-art comparison between theory and experiment. We found that the measured results were in good agreement with those of theoretical calculations.

We report a program for a summer science academy in chemistry, a section of the Chicago Academic Achievement Program (CAAP) at the University of Chicago, as a gateway to STEM for incoming first-generation students and other underrepresented student groups. Our program emphasized diversity in classrooms, students’ psychological safety and a sense of belonging to STEM, increased knowledge base, and overall college readiness. On the basis of feedback from participating students, the reported summer science academy in chemistry successfully prepared and motivated the CAAP scholars toward a STEM career direction.

We discuss a sufficient condition for the determination of the angle parameter of the complex dilatation transformation that is often used for the location of dynamical resonances. We show, as one example, that the proposed condition yields the exact value of this angle parameter for the case of a harmonic potential. The formulation of the sufficient condition permits it to be used for general potentials. We illustrate the utility of the proposed method by calculating the location of the resonance supported by a potential introduced in a model study by Moiseyev, Certain and Weinhold. The results obtained are very close to, but more accurate than, those previously reported, and they are obtained with less computational effort.