Sound waves in fluids (Q1090206)

The author gives a historical outlook on the geometrical acoustics, the Hamilton-Jacoby equations, Fresnel, Huygens and wave theory for inhomogeneous media. He is aimed to test numerically the consistency with the wave theory of the eikonal and ray approaches in model cases. The author's numerical investigations initiated here and in an earlier paper [\textit{M. H. Schultz} and \textit{D. Lee}, (eds.), Computational ocean acoustics, Oxford, Pergamon Press, (1985); on pp. 643-655] will be published later.