Finite element modeling of reverberation and transmission loss in shallow water waveguides with rough boundaries

A finite element model for the reverberation and propagation in a shallow water waveguide with a sandy bottom was calculated for five different environments at a center frequency of 250 Hz. The various environments included a rough water/sediment interface, a rough air/water interface, roughness at both interfaces and downward and upward refracting sound speed profiles with roughness at both interfaces. When compared to other models of reverberation such as ray theory, coupled modes, and parabolic equations, finite elements predicted higher levels of reverberation. At early times, this is due to the "fathometer" return, energy that is normally incident on the boundaries at zero range. At later times, the increased reverberation was due to high angle scattering paths between the two interfaces. Differences in reverberation levels among the environments indicated that scattered energy from the air/water interface is transmitted into the bottom at steep angles. This led to a large decrease in reverberation for a rough air/water interface relative to a rough water/sediment interface. Sound speed profile effects on reverberation were minimal at this frequency range. Calculations of the scintillation index of the different environments indicated that most of the reverberation was relatively Rayleigh-like with heavier tailed distributions at longer ranges.     

Mechanisms for subcritical penetration into a sandy bottom: experimental and modeling results

This paper presents preliminary results of a recent study whose overall objectives are to determine the mechanisms contributing significantly to subcritical acoustic penetration into ocean sediments, and to quantify the results for use in sonar performance prediction for the detection of buried objects. In situ acoustic measurements were performed on a sandy bottom whose geoacoustical and geomorphological properties were also measured. A parametric array mounted on a tower moving on a rail was used to insonify hydrophones located above and below the sediment interface. Data covering grazing angles both above and below the nominal critical angle and in the frequency range 2-15 kHz were acquired and processed. The results are compared to two models that account for scattering of sound at the rough water-sediment interface into the sediment. Although all possible mechanisms for subcritical penetration are not modeled, the levels predicted by both models are consistent with the levels observed in the experimental data. For the specific seafloor and experimental conditions examined, the analysis suggests that for frequencies below 5-7 kHz sound penetration into the sediment at subcritical insonification is dominated by the evanescent field, while scattering due to surface roughness is the dominant mechanism at higher frequencies.     

双基地冰-水界面混响强度的理论预报

针对北极冰层冰水界面具有小尺度粗糙界面的情况,给出由冰层造成的混响平均强度的理论预报公式。首先将北极冰层等效为具有粗糙界面的弹性介质,并且采用小粗糙度微扰理论在精细拟合粗糙度谱的基础上,建立粗糙冰层的三维散射强度模型,然后建立三维双基地声呐几何模型确定有效散射区域,最后给出双基地冰下混响平均强度的估算公式,并在所拟合的粗糙度谱的情况下,利用该预报公式计算双基地声呐配置参数和海冰物理及声学特性对冰下混响强度的影响算例。数值仿真表明该公式能够估算出北极冰下双基地声呐产生的混响平均强度,并且分析出了时延、基线长度等声呐配置参数和冰层声速比、密度比等海冰物理参数会对混响强度造成的影响。声呐的配置参数主要影响散射的有效面积,海冰的物理参数则影响着冰层的散射强度。其中,冰层声速比不仅影响混响强度的大小,还会影响混响强度随时间的衰减速度。      

Donor Impurity States on Rough Semiconductor Interface

Ground state energies of shallow states of donor impurities on cosine-shaped, periodically rough interfaces formed by two isotropic semiconductors, such as GaAs/Ga_1-xAl_xAs or GaAs/vacuum, are calculated variationally with the approximation that the interfaces represent infinitely high potential barriers. The results show that changes in the ground state energies of in teriaces impurity states caused by rough in teriace are not negligible especially for GaAs/Ga_1-xAl_xAs interfaces with sharp or dense interface defects.     

Neuro-computational processing of moving sonar echoes classifies and localizes foliage

Echoes from in situ tree trunks, similar to those observed by flying bats, are processed. A moving sonar converts echoes into spike sequences and applies neural-computational methods to classify objects and estimate passing range. Two classes of tree trunks act as retro-reflectors that generate strong echoes (SEs), identified by a locally dense spike pattern. Linear drive-by sonar trajectories cause SEs to follow hyperbolic curves specified by passing range. A glint is a collection of consecutive range readings matching expected values on a specific hyperbolic curve. Passing-range detectors compare successive SE data with expected values in a table and tally coincidences. Counters increment when coincidences occur and decrement when they do not. A glint terminates after tallying a sufficient number of coincidences and coincidence failure occurs in the maximum-count detector. Reflector roughness, deviations in sonar trajectory, and echo jitter necessitate a coincidence window to define matches. Short windows identify small glints over piecewise linear sonar trajectories, while long windows accommodate deviations in sonar speed and trajectory, and associate multiple glints observed with shorter windows. The minimum coincidence window size yielding glints classify smooth and rough retro-reflectors.     

The detection by sonar of difficult targets (including centimetre-scale plastic objects and optical fibres) buried in saturated sediment

This paper reports on a laboratory study into the use of sonar to detect objects, two of which exhibit a poor acoustic impedance mismatch with the water-saturated sediment in which they are buried to depth of about 30 cm. The targets are solid cylinders having diameters of 20-25 mm and 50 cm length, made of polyethylene, of telecommunications optical fibre, and of steel. Steel spheres are included for comparison. A poor acoustic impedance mismatch between the target and the host sediment is one factor that can make buried targets difficult to detect with sonar, but such detection is increasingly becoming an issue in a range of applications from archaeology to defence to telecommunications. Attention is paid to those signal processing techniques which could be of potential benefit. For this range of test objects, comparisons are made between use of optimal filtering and synthetic aperture sonar. In addition, the potential of a range of acousto-optical effects (optical time domain reflectometry, Raman and Brillouin scattering, and fibre optic hydrophones) is assessed in the Appendix for the particular application of detecting non-metallised fibre optic telecommunications cables. A web page dedicated to this paper hosts movies and reports at http://www.isvr.soton.ac.uk/fdag/uaua/target_in_sand.htm.     

A field expansions method for scattering by periodic multilayered media

The interaction of acoustic and electromagnetic waves with periodic structures plays an important role in a wide range of problems of scientific and technological interest. This contribution focuses upon the robust and high-order numerical simulation of a model for the interaction of pressure waves generated within the earth incident upon layers of sediment near the surface. Herein described is a boundary perturbation method for the numerical simulation of scattering returns from irregularly shaped periodic layered media. The method requires only the discretization of the layer interfaces (so that the number of unknowns is an order of magnitude smaller than finite difference and finite element simulations), while it avoids not only the need for specialized quadrature rules but also the dense linear systems characteristic of boundary integral/element methods. The approach is a generalization to multiple layers of Bruno and Reitich's "Method of Field Expansions" for dielectric structures with two layers. By simply considering the entire structure simultaneously, rather than solving in individual layers separately, the full field can be recovered in time proportional to the number of interfaces. As with the original field expansions method, this approach is extremely efficient and spectrally accurate.     

水中目标回波亮点统计特征研究

礁石和海洋动物引起的混响是主动声纳最严重的干扰, 如何区分礁石、鱼群和水中目标一直是制约主动声纳识别技术的难点问题. 针对礁石与目标回波难以区分的问题, 从特征识别的应用角度, 研究水中复杂目标全方位回波亮点特征的有效表征和应用方式, 基于目标回波亮点模型, 提出拷贝相关器输出的目标散射函数估计方法, 给出对目标回波亮点相对关系进行定量分析的目标回波特征统计表征方式, 并基于湖上实验提取了物理机理明确的目标回波亮点统计特征, 使得目标时间-角度谱中所蕴含的目标特征信息能够很直接地转化为主动声纳易于应用的目标特征. 关键词： 水中目标 回波亮点 统计特征     

Does roughening of rock-fluid-rock interfaces emerge from a stress-induced instability?

Non-planar solid-fluid-solid interfaces under stress are very common in many industrial and natural materials. For example, in the Earth’s crust, many rough and wavy interfaces can be observed in rocks in a wide range of spatial scales, from undulate grain boundaries at the micrometer scale, to stylolite dissolution planes at the meter scale. It is proposed here that these initially flat solid-fluid-solid interfaces become rough by a morphological instability triggered by elastic stress. A model for the formation of these unstable patterns at all scales is thus presented. It is shown that such instability is inherently present due to the uniaxial stress that promotes them, owing to the gain in the total elastic energy: the intrinsic elastic energy plus the work of the external forces. This is shown explicitly by solving the elastic problem in a linear stability analysis, and proved more generally without having resort to the computation of the elastic field.     

粗糙接触界面超声非线性效应的概率模型

提出描述粗糙接触界面超声非线性效应的概率模型,利用分段均匀概率函数描述粗糙接触界面劲度系数变化,结合表面粗糙峰的几何分布特征,得到界面粗糙度和两侧表面相对运动对声波的非线性调制作用。实验观测了铝合金材料的粗糙接触界面的高次谐波现象和阈值现象,进一步分析了归一化非线性参数与界面加载压力、粗糙度之间的关系。实验测量结果与概率模型的理论预测一致,证明了该模型的正确性,为利用超声非线性效应评价粗糙接触界面提供了理论依据。      

固体粗糙界面与超声的非线性相互作用研究

本文提出了一种随机弹性接触界面与超声的非线性相互作用理论. 首先建立了描述随机弹性接触界面的模型, 然后分别研究了界面间应力-应变关系在线性简化模型、指数模型、高斯模型下与超声的非线性相互作用. 数值仿真和实验研究结果均表明高斯模型更适合描述固体接触界面. 本文在介观结构上解释了固体界面与超声的相互作用, 对工业超声无损检测裂缝、缺陷及损伤有指导意义. 关键词： 超声无损检测 固体粗糙界面 非线性效应     

多层金属圆柱线中量子输运的表面和界面散射效应

考虑了量子尺寸效应以及来自杂质、粗糙表面和粗糙界面三方面的散射,运用量子统计的格林函数方法和久保公式,计算多层金属圆柱线中的各种散射电导率.计算结果表明,在杂质、表面和界面的弱散射极限下,系统总电导率等于各个子能级通道的电导率之和,而各子能级通道中杂质、表面和界面产生的散射率是可相加的. 关键词：     

Research on the acoustic scattering function and coherence properties from rough seafloor based on finite element model

Acoustic scattering from a rough sea bottom is recognized as a main source of reverberation. In this study, scattering properties from a layered bottom were exploited based on the finite element model. The scattering strength and loss from the layered rough seabed were investigated by ensembling the realizations of rough interface. They were found to be dependent on the thickness of sediment, and interference was significant in the case of thin sediment. Through verification of the finite element model, the scattering loss could be evaluated using the Eckart model with a proper sound speed in the thick sediment. The multiple scattering effect on the sound field was also exploited. It revealed that the effect depended strongly on the bottom type.     

Quantum Analytical Theory for Giant Magnetoresistance in Magnetic Multilayered Cylindrical Systems

Taking into account the quantum size effects and considering three types of scattering from bulk impurities,rough surface and rough interfaces,we use quantum-statistical Green‘s function approach and Kubo theory to calculate the electronic conductivity and the giant magnetoresistance in magnetic multilayered cylindrical systems.It is found that in the limit of weakly scattering from impurities surface and interfaces,the total conductivity is given by a sum of conductivities of all the subbands and two spin-channels.For each subband and each spin-channel the scattering rate due to the impurities,surface and interfaces is added up.     

Calculation of the reverberation spectrum for Doppler-based sonar

For monostatic sonar using long pulsed tone signals, the problem of evaluating the spectrum of reverberation due to sound wave scattering by a rough sea surface is solved. Relatively simple computational schemes are proposed, which make it possible (i) to transform the three-dimensional spectra of surface waves to the frequency-angular characteristics of reverberation and (ii) to choose the optimal operating frequency band for a Doppler sonar from the point of view of reverberation. For typical wind wave characteristics measured in shallow water areas, the spectral levels of reverberation are estimated in the frequency band of acoustic signals within 0.4?C2 kHz.     

Near-specular acoustic scattering from a buried submarine mud volcano

Submarine mud volcanoes are objects that form on the seafloor due to the emission of gas and fluidized sediment from the Earth's interior. They vary widely in size, can be exposed or buried, and are of interest to the underwater acoustics community as potential sources of active sonar clutter. Coincident seismic reflection data and low frequency bistatic scattering data were gathered from one such buried mud volcano located in the Straits of Sicily. The bistatic data were generated using a pulsed piston source and a 64-element horizontal array, both towed over the top of the volcano. The purpose of this work was to appropriately model low frequency scattering from the volcano using the bistatic returns, seismic bathymetry, and knowledge of the general geoacoustic properties of the area's seabed to guide understanding and model development. Ray theory, with some approximations, was used to model acoustic propagation through overlying layers. Due to the volcano's size, scattering was modeled using geometric acoustics and a simple representation of volcano shape. Modeled bistatic data compared relatively well with experimental data, although some features remain unexplained. Results of an inversion for the volcano's reflection coefficient indicate that it may be acoustically softer than expected.     

The use of multibeam backscatter angular response for marine sediment characterisation by comparison with shallow electromagnetic conductivity

In this empirically-driven research, multibeam backscatter angular response analysis is presented, together with shallow electromagnetic data and groundtruthing, to examine its suitability as a proxy for sediment characterisation. Backscatter angular curves extracted from Kongsberg EM1002 sonar (95–98 kHz), acquired in the Malin Basin to the northwest of Ireland, have been selected as a case study. Standard angular backscatter features and newly derived curvature features are examined and cross compared. Exhaustive statistical analysis has been performed on the data to elucidate the complex relationship between multibeam backscatter and sediment properties. Subtle subsurface sediment property gradients across the basin identified by the conductivity system are also captured by the newly derived backscatter features. The results reveal that Near-range backscatter is better suited for subsurface sediment characterisation in soft, fine-grained sediments than far-range. Furthermore, the analysis has constrained the optimum interval for such characterisation to in-between 4° and 16° for the parameters of this study. A number of shape features (slope, first derivative, second derivative and Fourier-smoothed least-squares-fitted curvature) have been examined, and their suitability discussed, in terms of sediment characterisation and, in particular, as potential proxies for delineating the boundary between sand- or silt-dominated sediment facies. Nonetheless, curvature features are found to be independent from average angular backscatter response, but outperform both first and second derivatives when correlating with conductivity in the central part of this case-study with fine-grained homogeneous sediments.     

Analysis of the spatial distribution of detector sensitivity in a multilayer randomly inhomogeneous medium with strong light scattering and absorption by the Monte Carlo method

The spatial distribution of sensitivity in the domain of detection of a fiber-optic sensor used for spectrophotometric studies of skin and other biological tissues is studied. The method and results of modeling the propagation of optical radiation in multilayer randomly inhomogeneous media with strong light scattering and absorption are presented. Owing to the small distances between the source and detector (100–800 μm), the propagation of radiation in the medium under study is modeled by the Monte Carlo method combining the calculation of true paths and the use of statistical weights. For the same reason, we represent the surface and interfaces of layers of skin as rough randomly periodic surfaces corresponding to the actual structure of human skin. The method presented can be recommended as a means for the optimum selection of an arrangement for radiation incoupling and outcoupling.     

A parabolic equation for penetrable rough surfaces: using the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation to buffer density jumps

The goal of this effort is to design a parabolic equation (PE) that can be fully integrated into modern rough surface scattering theory. The Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation is used to design a PE that addresses this challenge. The paradigm employed is based on a non-relativistic theory of the quantum Lamb shift, in which a parabolic equation (the Schrödinger equation) was used to model a field near a rough surface (the world line of the hydrogen nucleus advected by vacuum fluctuations). With the acoustic field serving as the prototypical classical field, the PE derived using the Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation exploits higher-order boundary conditions to buffer density discontinuities in a manner precisely dictated by the formalism. This is significant because the techniques used in rough surface scattering theory ultimately rely on perturbation theory, conformal mappings, a local method of images, or some similar distortion of the range-independent problem. This type of distortion is not possible with techniques currently employed at a density jump, and so ad hoc rules have been used instead. The new PE allows interfaces where the density jumps (such as the ocean bottom) to be distorted into rough ones, and so it is fully compatible with rough surface scattering theory.     

Study on the electromechanical coupling coefficient of Rayleigh-type surface acoustic waves in semi-infinite piezoelectrics/non-piezoelectrics superlattices

The electromechanical coupling coefficient of Rayleigh-type surface acoustic waves in semi-infinite piezoelectrics/non-piezoelectrics superlattices is investigated by the transfer matrix method. Research results show the high electromechanical coupling coefficient can be obtained in these systems. The optimization design of it is also discussed fully. It is significantly influenced by electrical boundary conditions on interfaces, thickness ratios of piezoelectric and non-piezoelectric layers, and material parameters (such as velocities of pure longitudinal and transversal bulk waves in non-piezoelectric layers). In order to obtain higher electromechanical coupling coefficient, shorted interfaces, non-piezoelectric materials with large velocities of longitudinal and transversal bulk waves, and proper thickness ratios should be chosen.