Nonlinear acoustic techniques for landmine detection

Measurements of the top surface vibration of a buried (inert) VS 2.2 anti-tank plastic landmine reveal significant resonances in the frequency range between 80 and 650 Hz. Resonances from measurements of the normal component of the acoustically induced soil surface particle velocity (due to sufficient acoustic-to-seismic coupling) have been used in detection schemes. Since the interface between the top plate and the soil responds nonlinearly to pressure fluctuations, characteristics of landmines, the soil, and the interface are rich in nonlinear physics and allow for a method of buried landmine detection not previously exploited. Tuning curve experiments (revealing "softening" and a back-bone curve linear in particle velocity amplitude versus frequency) help characterize the nonlinear resonant behavior of the soil-landmine oscillator. The results appear to exhibit the characteristics of nonlinear mesoscopic elastic behavior, which is explored. When two primary waves f1 and f2 drive the soil over the mine near resonance, a rich spectrum of nonlinearly generated tones is measured with a geophone on the surface over the buried landmine in agreement with Donskoy [SPIE Proc. 3392, 221-217 (1998); 3710, 239-246 (1999)]. In profiling, particular nonlinear tonals can improve the contrast ratio compared to using either primary tone in the spectrum.     

Studying the mechanical behavior of a plastic, shock-resisting, antitank landmine

Modal behavior in landmines has recently become a topic of interest for acoustic landmine detection. It is well known that landmines exhibit mechanical resonance behavior that enhances the soil velocity over a buried landmine. Recent experimental work by Zagrai et al. [A. Zagrai, D. Donskoy, and A. Ekimov, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118 (6), 3619-3628 (2005)] demonstrates the existence of structural modes in several landmines. The work reported herein parallels the work of Zagrai et al. in studying the structural modes of the pressure plate of a plastic, cylindrically symmetric, antitank landmine. The pressure plate is considered to act as an elastically supported thin elastic plate. An observed perturbation of the first symmetric mode of the pressure plate is caused by the landmine's shock-resisting mechanism. This is validated by a lumped element model for the first symmetric mode coupled to the shock-resisting mechanism.     

土壤-地雷共振系统模型解析

在研究土壤-地雷共振系统模型的基础上,提出一种共振与反共振相结合的声波探雷模型.根据地雷顺性大及低频声学的特征,把地雷与其上方的土壤分别等效为弹簧和质量块,构成质量-弹簧共振系统,通过对系统频响函数的解析,讨论模型的共振与反共振现象.通过实验发现有、无地雷的地表振动速度比值存在大于1的极大值频率点和小于1的极小值频率点交替出现的现象,与理论预测符合.表明土壤-地雷共振系统同时存在共振与反共振现象,可用于地雷成像的研究. 关键词： 共振模型 反共振 频响函数 声波探雷     

Nonlinear seismo-acoustic land mine detection and discrimination

A novel technique for detection and discrimination of artificial objects, such as land mines, pipes, containers, etc., buried in the ground, has been developed and tested. The developed approach utilizes vibration (using seismic or airborne acoustic waves) of buried objects, remote measurements of soil surface vibration (using laser or microwave vibrometers), and processing of the measured vibration to extract mine's "vibration signatures." The technique does not depend upon the material from which the mine is fabricated whether it be metal, plastic, wood, or any other material. It depends upon the fact that a mine is a "container" whose purpose is to contain explosive materials and associated detonation apparatus. The mine container is in contact with the soil in which it is buried. The container is an acoustically compliant article, whose compliance is notably different from the compliance of the surrounding soil. Dynamic interaction of the compliant container and soil on top of it leads to specific linear and nonlinear effects used for mine detection and discrimination. The mass of the soil on top of a compliant container creates a classical mass-spring system with a well-defined resonance response. Besides, the connection between mass (soil) and spring (mine) is not elastic (linear) but rather nonlinear, due to the separation of the soil/mine interface in the tensile phase of applied dynamic stress. These two effects, constituting the mine's vibration signature have been measured in numerous laboratory and field tests, which proved that the resonance and nonlinear responses of a mine/soil system can be used for detection and discrimination of buried mines. Thus, the fact that the mine is buried is turned into a detection advantage. Because the seismo-acoustic technique intrinsically detects buried containers, it can discriminate mines from noncompliant false targets such as rocks, tree roots, chunks of metal, bricks, etc. This was also confirmed experimentally in laboratory and field tests.     

用非饱和三相孔弹模型研究浅层土壤中地震波的传播特性

研究浅层土壤中声波耦合的地震波的传播特性, 用于声波探雷技术的机理分析. 根据浅层土壤具有孔隙度和可压缩性的特点, 利用非饱和三相孔隙介质中的地震波模型, 研究了土壤孔隙度、含水饱和度等参数对地震波传播特性的影响. 计算结果显示: 在给定的参数条件下, 地震波的传播速度和衰减系数均随频率的增加而增加; 纵波的传播速度随孔隙度的增加而减小, 横波的传播速度随孔隙度的增加而增加; 地震波的传播特性随含水饱和度的增加变化比较复杂. 通过对计算结果与已发表实验结果的比较分析, 讨论了解析方法的可行性, 为声-地震耦合机理及其在声波探雷研究中的应用提供了一定的理论基础. 关键词： 声-地震耦合 地震波 孔隙度 声波探雷     

An experimental study on antipersonnel landmine detection using acoustic-to-seismic coupling

An acoustic-to-seismic system to detect buried antipersonnel mines exploits airborne acoustic waves penetrating the surface of the ground. Acoustic waves radiating from a sound source above the ground excite Biot type I and II compressional waves in the porous soil. The type I wave and type II waves refract toward the normal and cause air and soil particle motion. If a landmine is buried below the surface of the insonified area, these waves are scattered or reflected by the target, resulting in distinct changes to the acoustically coupled ground motion. A scanning laser Doppler vibrometer measures the motion of the ground surface. In the past, this technique has been employed with remarkable success in locating antitank mines during blind field tests [Sabatier and Xiang, IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens. 39, 1146-1154 (2001)]. The humanitarian demining mission requires an ability to locate antipersonnel mines, requiring a surmounting of additional challenges due to a plethora of shapes and smaller sizes. This paper describes an experimental study on the methods used to locate antipersonnel landmines in recent field measurements.     

Laser-Doppler Vibrometer measurements of acoustic-to-seismic coupling in unconsolidated soils

Measurements of acoustic-to-seismic coupling ratio, i.e. the ratio of the pressure exerted by an acoustic wave at a point on the surface to the acoustic particle velocity generated at the surface at that point, may be used to determine both elastic and structural properties of poroelastic materials. The sound pressure is measured using a microphone and, usually, the velocities are measured using geophones. Problems with geophone sensors have been shown to include both mass loading of the soil and coupling resonances within the frequency range of interest. The latter can lead to inaccurate amplitude and phase measurements. In an attempt to overcome these problems, the use of a Laser-Doppler vibrometer (LDV) has been investigated. Previous work with compacted plane soil surfaces has been extended to loosely consolidated soils. Good agreement has been found between geophone and LDV measurements of vertical particle velocity for a continuous wave sound source. Problems with poor LDV signal-to-noise ratio in unconsolidated materials have been overcome using local ground treatment. Subsequent modelling shows reasonable agreement between the data and the predicted values of material properties.     

Nonlinear vibrations of buried landmines

The seismo-acoustic method is one of the most promising emerging techniques for the detection of landmines. Numerous field tests have demonstrated that buried landmines manifest themselves at the surface through linear and nonlinear responses to acoustic/seismic excitation. The present paper describes modeling of the nonlinear response in the framework of the mass-spring model of the soil-mine system. The perturbation method used in the model allows for the derivation of an analytical solution describing both quadratic and cubic acoustic interactions at the soil-mine interface. This solution has been compared with actual field measurements to obtain nonlinear parameters of the buried mines. These parameters have been analyzed with respect to mine types and burial depths. It was found that the cubic nonlinearity could be a significant contributor to the nonlinear response. This effect has led to the development of a new intermodulation detection algorithm based on dual-frequency excitation. Both quadratic and intermodulation nonlinear algorithms were evaluated at the U.S. Army outdoor testing facilities. The algorithms appear to complement each other in improving the overall detection performance.     

Spectrum analysis of seismic surface waves and its applications in seismic landmine detection

In geophysics, spectrum analysis of surface waves (SASW) refers to a noninvasive method for soil characterization. However, the term spectrum analysis can be used in a wider sense to mean a method for determining and identifying various modes of seismic surface waves and their properties such as velocity, polarization, etc. Surface waves travel along the free boundary of a medium and can be easily detected with a transducer placed on the free surface of the boundary. A new method based on vector processing of space-time data obtained from an array of triaxial sensors is proposed to produce high-resolution, multimodal spectra from surface waves. Then individual modes can be identified in the spectrum and reconstructed in the space-time domain; also, reflected waves can be separated easily from forward waves in the spectrum domain. This new SASW method can be used for detecting and locating landmines by analyzing the reflected waves for resonance. Processing examples are presented for numerically generated data, experimental data collected in a laboratory setting, and field data.     

热中子分析探雷的中子源慢化装置设计与优化

与传统的地雷探测技术相比,热中子分析(Thermal Neutron Analysis,简称TNA) 探雷技术具有准确率高、虚警率低和对环境适应性强的特点,但探测速度较慢,制约了其广泛应用。为了提高地雷位置处的慢热中子通量,缩短探测时间,提出了一种基于252Cf 的中子源慢化装置设计构型,主要包含中子慢化层、中子反射层、本底 屏蔽层和侧向中子吸收层4 个部分。采用数值模拟的方法比较了4种常用中子慢化(反射) 材料的性能,优选高密度聚乙烯作为慢化材料,石墨作为反射材料。同时,为了满足辐射安全要求,对屏蔽材料的结构进行了优化计算。按照设计构型搭建了TNA 探雷实验平台。在104 n/s 中子源强下优化了慢化层和反射层的厚度,测试了装置慢化效能,在107 n/s 中子源强下评估了装置辐射安全性能。结果表明,采用该装置可使地雷位置处的慢热中子通量提升11 倍以上,并能有效保障辐射安全。Compared with the traditional landmine detection methods, Thermal Neutron Analysis (TNA) landmine detection has the advantages of high accuracy, low false alarm rate and strong adaptability to the environmental change.But the long detection time restrict the wide application of this technology. In order to shorten the detection time, one possible design of neutron moderation device based on 252Cf neutron source is proposed to enhance the moderated neutronflux in mine position. The device consists of four parts, the neutron moderator, the neutron reflector, the background shield and the useless neutron absorbing layer. Then, the performance of four widely used materials in neutronics was compared with MCNP5 code, and HDPE was chosen as the neutron moderator material, graphite as the neutron reflector material. The thickness of the useless neutron absorbing layer was optimized at the same time. Finally, an experimental platform of 252Cf neutron moderation device was assembled on the basis of simulation results, and a series of experiments were carried out to optimize the geometric dimensions and evaluate the dose equivalent with two different strengths neutron source, 104 and 107 n/s. The results indicate that this device can effectively enhance the thermal neutron flux at mine position by more than 11 times and ensure the radiation safety.     

激光—声通信研究

通过对多普勒相干检测方法的研究,开发了一套激光测振系统,可以通过对水面质点振动速度进行非浸入式的探测,进而获取水下声信息。本文对水面平静和波动两种情况下的激光声通信进行了研究,通过水池实验证明了探测和通信原理的正确性和可行性,给出了系统最小可探测声压级,对波动水面下的数据丢失情况进行了分析,并提出了可能的解决途径。     

Ground vibrations detection with fiber optic sensor

In this paper, a fiber optic sensor based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is employed to measure the ground vibrations which may be generated by earthquakes, debris flows, landslides, and rock impacts on the ground. The detected vibration signals were analyzed by both fast Fourier transform (FFT) and Gabor transform to obtain the frequency response. The performance of fiber optic sensor was examined and compared with the conventional ground vibration geophone sensor. From the results of field tests, the fiber optic sensor shows highly similarity with conventional geophone sensor for low frequency measurement. The fiber optic vibration sensing system presented in this research is appropriate for sensing ground vibration in the frequency ranges of 10–250 Hz. The sensor proved to be an alternative option for ground vibrations monitoring system.     

三分量光弹波导混合集成加速度传感器

三分量光弹波导M-Z干涉型集成加速度传感器的研究,为高频高精度地震勘探提供集成化的高精度传感器.利用光弹原理,分析了光弹效应检测任意方向加速度的原理.在X切Y传LiNbO3晶体上,设计制作了光波导双M-Z干涉仪及各集成器件：波导相位调制器、波导偏振器.三分量光弹波导M-Z干涉型集成加速度传感器测试表明：该传感器动态范围宽、线性性好.主要参数为：相位灵敏度达1.81×10－4Rad/m·s－2;工作频带3~1506(Hz).     

Model for continuously scanning ultrasound vibrometer sensing displacements of randomly rough vibrating surfaces

An analytic model is developed for the time-dependent ultrasound field reflected off a randomly rough vibrating surface for a continuously scanning ultrasound vibrometer system in bistatic configuration. Kirchhoff's approximation to Green's theorem is applied to model the three-dimensional scattering interaction of the ultrasound wave field with the vibrating rough surface. The model incorporates the beam patterns of both the transmitting and receiving ultrasound transducers and the statistical properties of the rough surface. Two methods are applied to the ultrasound system for estimating displacement and velocity amplitudes of an oscillating surface: incoherent Doppler shift spectra and coherent interferometry. Motion of the vibrometer over the randomly rough surface leads to time-dependent scattering noise that causes a randomization of the received signal spectrum. Simulations with the model indicate that surface displacement and velocity estimation are highly dependent upon the scan velocity and projected wavelength of the ultrasound vibrometer relative to the roughness height standard deviation and correlation length scales of the rough surface. The model is applied to determine limiting scan speeds for ultrasound vibrometer measuring ground displacements arising from acoustic or seismic excitation to be used in acoustic landmine confirmation sensing.     

脉冲快热中子分析时序优化理论研究

源中子脉冲的脉宽和滞空是脉冲快热中子分析技术的两个关键时序参数,但目前国内外还没有针对上述参数的量化评估及设置方法的相关文献报道。针对这一现状,定义了时序优化的量化评估函数,进而建立了一种时序参数优化的理论解析模型,并通过将待测目标物与周边介质等效为线性时不变系统,简化了计算过程。从数学上证明了基于该模型获取的中子脉冲的最优脉宽和滞空应相等。以美国研制的脉冲中子元素分析仪应用于地雷探测时的场景为例,获取了该场景下的最优时序参数,并论证了该模型对环境介质、探测布局的适应性。结果表明,该理论模型能快速有效地获取特定应用场景下的最优时序参数,且对探测背景、探测布局均具有较强的适应性。提出的理论模型可为脉冲快热中子分析技术应用于物料分析、违禁品探测、地雷探测等领域提供参考。     

基于激光二极管光反馈效应的肌肉震颤测量系统

介绍一种测量肌肉震颤频率和幅度的无损伤、非接触光学方法。分析了在直接频率调制下 ,激光二极管中的光反馈效应 ,探讨了振动微小位移和速度的理论模型。设计并研制了一套基于光反馈效应的直接频率调制激光二极管光电探测系统。利用该系统对微弱机械振动信号进行了探测 ,表明该系统能用于肌肉震颤的测量。最后介绍了人体前臂内侧屈肌群紧张收缩时 ,肌肉震颤的光学测量结果     

基于双光路差分测量法的光纤粉尘浓度测量研究

矿井环境粉尘浓度的测量与治理一直是采矿行业安全发展的一项难题。为了实现对井下场所粉尘浓度安全、实时地监测，研究采用内腔式循环系统获得实验粉尘的空间均匀分布，采用双光路光纤差分测量法解决探测窗口表面的落尘问题。以玉米粉为研究对象，注入5种不同粉尘质量，通过计算粉尘质量浓度与衰减系数之间的比例系数，校准获得粉尘质量浓度的测量值，测量结果与理想计算粉尘质量浓度曲线基本吻合。研究发现，双光路光纤差分测量法可有效解决探测器表面的落尘问题，可为矿井环境粉尘浓度光纤监测技术的工程应用提供参考。     

Analog vision chip for motion detection of an approaching object against a moving background based on the insect visual system

A network for motion detection of an approaching object without influence of the moving background was proposed based on the insect visual system. The two-dimensional array of the analog complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuits for extracting the edge signals of the approaching object without outputting those of the moving background was inserted at the first stage of the network. At the next stage, analog CMOS circuits for detection of approaching velocity and direction, which accept the extracted edge signals, were inserted based on the locust vision system. A chip of the proposed network was fabricated with the 1.2 mm CMOS process. It was clarified from the measured results and the simulation results with the simulation program with integrated circuit emphasis (SPICE) that the two-dimensional circuits of the first stage can only generate the signals of target edges. The measured results showed that the chip can detect the approaching velocity and direction of the target in the image which contains the moving background.     

Predicting surface vibration from underground railways through inhomogeneous soil

Noise and vibration from underground railways is a major source of disturbance to inhabitants near subways. To help designers meet noise and vibration limits, numerical models are used to understand vibration propagation from these underground railways. However, the models commonly assume the ground is homogeneous and neglect to include local variability in the soil properties. Such simplifying assumptions add a level of uncertainty to the predictions which is not well understood. The goal of the current paper is to quantify the effect of soil inhomogeneity on surface vibration. The thin-layer method (TLM) is suggested as an efficient and accurate means of simulating vibration from underground railways in arbitrarily layered half-spaces. Stochastic variability of the soil's elastic modulus is introduced using a K–L expansion; the modulus is assumed to have a log-normal distribution and a modified exponential covariance kernel. The effect of horizontal soil variability is investigated by comparing the stochastic results for soils varied only in the vertical direction to soils with 2D variability. Results suggest that local soil inhomogeneity can significantly affect surface velocity predictions; 90 percent confidence intervals showing 8 dB averages and peak values up to 12 dB are computed. This is a significant source of uncertainty and should be considered when using predictions from models assuming homogeneous soil properties. Furthermore, the effect of horizontal variability of the elastic modulus on the confidence interval appears to be negligible. This suggests that only vertical variation needs to be taken into account when modelling ground vibration from underground railways.     

A method for analyzing vibration power absorption density in human fingertip

In the current study, we hypothesize that the vibration power absorption density (VPAD) is a good measure for the vibration exposure intensity of the soft tissues of the fingers. In order to calculate the VPAD at a fingertip, we proposed a hybrid modeling approach, which combines a 2D finite element (FE) model with a lumped parameter model. Whereas the lumped components are used to represent the global biodynamic characteristics of the hand-arm system, the FE component is used to predict the detailed stresses, strains, and VPAD in the fingertip. The lumped parameters are determined by using the vibration transmissibilities measured at the fingertip, while the material parameters of the soft and hard tissues of the FE model are adopted from the published experimental data. The proposed model was applied to predict the distributions of dynamic displacement, velocity, and VPAD in the soft tissues of the fingertip. Furthermore, we have derived the frequency weighting based on the VPAD of the soft tissue. The preliminary analysis indicated that the VPAD-based frequency weighting is substantially different from the ISO weighting in that the ISO frequency weighting emphasizes the effect of the vibration at frequencies lower than 25 Hz whereas the VPAD-based weighting generally emphasizes the resonant responses of the finger. Our analysis indicated that the VPAD-based weighting was fairly consistent with the finger surface vibration transmissibility at frequencies greater than the first resonance, suggesting that the finger surface transmissibility may be used as an alternative frequency weighting for assessing the finger vibration exposure. The proposed method provides a practical and efficient tool to simulate the detailed biodynamic responses of a complex biological system to vibration.