Description:
Number-theoretic coprime sparse samplers have recently sparked research activities in the fields of signal processing and acoustics. The concept of coprime sparse sensing has been successfully implemented and experimentally tested in form of acoustic sparse microphone arrays, as shown in the publication [D. Bush and N. Xiang, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 138, 447-456 (2015)]. The current study investigates how coprime theory can be applied to scattering incident sound. It also investigates how coprime array concepts can be applied to volumetric diffusers using solid cylinders as sparse array elements. These are arranged in pairs of subarrays whose number of cylinders are two mutually prime (coprime) integers in a sparse arrangement. Coprime scatter arrays are tested experimentally as sparse sound diffusers using one-fifth scale modeling and an acoustic goniometer to investigate coprime sparse diffuser effectiveness in real world applications.