The acoustic nonlinearity parameter B/A is determined using a method based on the finite amplitude distortion of a sine wave emitted by a piston. The growth of the second harmonic component of this wave is measured by a piston receiver which is coaxial with and the same size as the source. In order to determine B/A, the experimental measurements are compared to a theory which incorporates the nonlinearity parameter. The theory developed for this study accounts for the influence of both diffraction and attenuation on the experimental measurements. For this reason, the method is more accurate than previous techniques that employ plane-wave theory for a lossless medium. To test the measurement method, experimental results for B/A in distilled water, ethylene glycol, and glycerol are compared to established values. The agreement between these values suggests that the measurement accuracy is ±4% for common liquids.
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Wesley N. Cobb (1983) studied this question.