Applications of Acoustic and Electromagnetic Propagation

A fish tracking model and an acoustic multi-layered structure are presented using the theory of transmission lines to demonstrate propagation through various layered media. The fish tracking model is an electromagnetic propagation model used in conjunction with experimentally collected data to pinpoint the path travelled by spawning salmon, allowing for the study of fine-scale fish migration in remote and challenging landscapes. Although appearing radically different, acoustic propagation shares much the same formalism as electromagnetic propagation; therefore, the second portion of this thesis uses a similar transmission line model to analyze the acoustic loss of a single, double, and triple-pane window – a challenging problem that provides useful information for both architects and researchers alike. Both models provide foundational work and illuminate limitations in applying it directly to real world problems. The electromagnetic propagation yields small deviations in gain across the area of interest resulting in easily accomplished large scale tracking. For finer resolution, more analysis would be required on the data produced. The acoustic transmission line model provides insight into the design of windows, however, current results indicate that only a single layer is modelled accurately.