Temperature Variation of Velocity and Absorption Coefficient of Ultrasonic Waves in Heavy Water (D2O)

The coefficient of absorption and velocity of propagation were measured in D2O at 50.22 Mc/sec as functions of temperature. Velocity values are lower than those in H2O at corresponding temperature by about 100 m/sec but measurements extended to 90° show a striking qualitative similarity between velocity vs temperature curves for D2O and H2O. The value of the frequency-free absorption coefficient 2α/ν2 varies from 124×10−17 to 27×10−17 cm−1 sec2 over the temperature range of 5° to 50°C. The mean value of the ratio of measured value to classical value is 2.87 against 3.12 for H2O.