Source characterization using recordings made in a reverberant underwater channel

The ability to accurately characterize an underwater sound source is an important prerequisite for many applications including detection, classification, monitoring and mitigation. Unfortunately, anechoic underwater recording environments required to make ideal recordings are generally not available. This paper presents a practical approach to source characterization when working in an imperfect recording environment; the source spectrum is obtained by equalizing the recording with the inverse of the channel’s impulse response (IR). An experiment was conducted in a diving well (depth of 5.18 m) using a logarithmic chirp to obtain the IR. IR length is estimated using methods borrowed from room acoustics and inversion of non-minimum phase IR is accomplished separately in the time and frequency domain to allow for a direct comparison. Results indicate that the energy of controlled sources can be recovered with root-mean-square error of −70 dB (10–70 kHz band). Two equations, one coherent and the other incoherent, are presented to calculate source spectral levels of an unknown source in a reverberant environment. This paper introduces a practical procedure outlining steps to obtain an anechoic estimate of an unknown source using equipment generally available in an acoustic laboratory.     

Sound radiation and sound quality characteristics of refrigerator noise in real living environments

The characteristics of various types of refrigerator noise were investigated in an anechoic chamber and in a real living environment - a 100 m² apartment which is a common size in Korea. It was found that the sound pressure level of the refrigerator noise in the real living room was about 10 dB higher than the level in the anechoic chamber at the same position (1 m in front of refrigerator). In addition, a tolerance level for refrigerator noise was determined by subjective evaluation experiments. Refrigerator noise was presented by a loudspeaker placed in the kitchen where the refrigerator is normally located. Level 2 responses to the subjective evaluation (“hardly perceivable”) corresponded to a sound pressure level of about 26 dB(A), for which 90% of participants were satisfied with the level of refrigerator noise. A semantic differential test using various adjectives was also conducted to evaluate the sound quality of refrigerator noise. With the semantic differential and the factor analysis, adjectives used in this experiment were grouped into three factors. From the results of correlation and multiple regression analyses on the psychoacoustical parameters and subjective evaluations of 30 kinds of refrigerators, sound quality index which predict the subjective rating score were proposed.     

Using experimental design to characterize the effect of structural elements on acoustical response of hand-free phone

This article presents an adaptation of the experimental design method (more precisely called “statistical design and analysis of experiments” and referred to as DOE) to acoustics. Experimental design is an efficient method to find an empirical relation whenever a theoretical one cannot be obtained or would be too difficult to obtain. This technique is not common in acoustics where it has been used in a few application cases to determine what product or process parameters affect the acoustic response. The response variable was single valued whereas, in the proposed method, it is an array of values, a frequency spectrum which constitutes a more practical tool for an advanced acoustic analysis. The results are presented on a spectrum plot where the factor effect is given in the physical quantity (dB) and the Fisher test of significance is presented as two plots of the lower and upper significance limits (also in dB). The method is applied to a hand-free telephone where, for subsequent modeling purposes, the method determines which structural factors affect the telephone acoustic response and what are the associated frequency ranges. This adaptation of the DOE method is validated with the verification of the results in three ways: first, with a complementary experimental design, second, with a more classical experimental method, and, third, with a computer simulation.     

Fish reaction to tonal vessel noise – Comparison with ICES CRR 209 methodology

There is concern that research vessels used in fish stock appraisals may have biased data due to fish avoidance reaction. One possible mechanism inducing this avoidance reaction is tonal noise. This paper assesses fish reaction to vessel noise on the basis of a detailed paper on the tonal auditory characteristics of cod [8]. Specifically, narrow band underwater radiated noise from certain research vessels, but mainly “R.V. Scotia”, is used to establish a cod reaction range. This is then compared to the calculated reaction range using a 1/3rd octave band assessment as set forward in International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) Cooperative Research Report No. CRR 209. These comparisons were also carried out for another low-noise research vessel, namely “CEFAS Endeavour”.It is tentatively concluded from this paper that, based upon the “30 dB above hearing threshold” criterion, vessel tonality is not a strong mechanism for fish reaction to the low-noise ICES compliant vessels. However, it should be appreciated that this generalisation is based upon one (sensitive) specific species of fish and two specific research vessels. It is considered that further analysis should be carried out on other commercially important, but noise-sensitive fish, such as herring. Also, narrow band underwater noise should be investigated for other fisheries research vessels – ideally including those where strong fish reactions have been observed viz. G.O. Sars and Oscar Dyson. It should also be noted that, in this paper, each tone has been considered separately from all others; whereas, in reality, vessel noise is rich in tones and harmonics. This paper has attempted to separate out the tonal audibility aspect from the general issue of vessel broadband radiated noise by solely looking at the tonal level above the spectrum level to gain some insight into the importance of this issue.Comments are also made on various issues including masking noise, very low frequency tonal noise and the associated issue of particle acceleration sensitivity for cod.     

NOISE GENERATED BY A COANDA WALL JET CIRCULATION CONTROL DEVICE

An analysis is made of the production of sound by a hydrofoil with a Coanda wall jet circulation control (CC-) device. Three principal sources are identified in the vicinity of the trailing edge of the hydrofoil. The radiation at very low frequencies is dominated by “curvature noise” generated by the interaction of boundary layer turbulence with the rounded trailing edge of the CC-hydrofoil; this is similar in character and magnitude to the low-frequency component of the conventional trailing edge noise produced by a hydrofoil of the same chord, but with a sharp trailing edge. Higher frequency sound is produced principally at the Coanda jet slot. “Passive slot noise” is caused by the “scattering” by the slot lip of nearfield pressure fluctuations in the turbulent boundary layer of the exterior mean flow past the slot. This is of comparable intensity to high frequency, sharp-edged trailing edge noise. However, the acoustic spectrum is greatly extended to much higher frequencies if the Coanda jet is turbulent; the sound produced by the interaction of this turbulence with the lip tends to dominate the spectrum at frequencies f (Hz) greater than about U_j/h, where h is the slot width and U_jthe Coanda jet speed. Sample numerical results are presented for a typical underwater application that indicate that at this and higher frequencies the slot noise can be 20 dB or more greater than conventional trailing edge noise, although the differences become smaller as the thickness of the slot lip increases.     

A 1 × 2 optical switch using one multimode interference region

A 1 × 2 optical switch using only one multimode interference (MMI) region is designed and demonstrated in GaAs/AlGaAs. This design makes a single MMI region works as MMI coupler using paired interference at “off” state and symmetric interference at “on” state. By injecting a current of 110 mA, the measured on/off ratio and crosstalk are 23 dB and 33 dB, respectively in the demonstrated device with GaAs/GaAlAs.     

Determination of the sound energy level of a gunshot and its applications in room acoustics

In some cases an impulsive noise source such as a gunshot can be a preferred alternative when investigating building acoustics, including sound insulation measurements, when compared to conventional steady state noise sources. A gun equipped with blank cartridges is an impulsive noise source that is lightweight and small enough to be easily transported. The differences in the noise characteristics between individual cartridges for the same gun are usually small, so the impulsive source can be replicated to a high degree. This paper is focused on the practical application of the sound exposure levels produced by a gunshot with a known sound energy level in the rooms under investigation. In this way, the equipment and methods required by the conventional method are simplified significantly. Furthermore, reverberation times need not be measured, since the equivalent absorption area can be directly obtained from the measured sound exposure levels. Using Green’s theorem, the roles of the sound source and measuring microphone were exchanged, which simplified the determination of sound insulation as it was easier to change the position of the gun than the microphone. The results obtained using the impulsive noise source were in good agreement with those obtained using the conventional method. Above 100 Hz, their difference in any frequency band of interest was less than 1 dB.     

The evaluation of binaural playback systems for virtual sound fields

By means of virtual acoustics technologies the impulse response in a location of a real enclosure can be used to create a virtual room. Also in this virtual space, typically implemented in a dead room, an impulse response can be measured. From both “real” and respective “virtual” impulse response a group of room-acoustical parameters can be calculated. The match of the two groups of indicators mostly depends on the layout of the playback system and on the implemented processing. In this paper a procedure of virtual measurement in a dead room is developed and some typical layouts of playback systems employing two loudspeakers are compared. Based on the consistency of the room-acoustical indicators derived from “real” and “virtual” impulse responses can be investigated. It is shown how the performance depends on the angular separation of loudspeakers and the efficiency of the cross-talk is also tested and discussed. Finally, a set-up which is suitable for psychoacoustics tests is indicated.     

Cascadability and reshaping properties of a saturable absorber inserted inside a RZ transmission line for future 160-Gbit/s all-optical 2R-regenerators

In this prospective work, we analyze the behavior of a quantum-well microcavity saturable absorber component cascaded into a 100-km SMF RZ transmission line in order to annihilate the ghost-pulse phenomenon in the following simplified “…010101…” 160-Gbit/s 2-bit pattern at 1555 nm. Recirculating-loop experiments show a maximal ghost-pulse extinction up to 11.6 dB as well as an intensity extinction ratio enhancement higher than 6 dB over at least 800 km of propagation.     

Features of underwater acoustics from Aristotle to our time

Underwater acoustics has been one of the fastest growing fields of research in acoustics. In particular, the 20th Century has taken our understanding of underwater acoustics phenomena a great step forward. The two World Wars contributed to the recognition of the importance of research in underwater acoustics, and the momentum in research and development gained during World War II did not reduce in the years after the war. The so-called cold war and the development in computer technology both contributed substantially to the development in underwater acoustics over the second half of the 20th Century. However, the very widespread field of underwater acoustic activities started nearly 2300 years ago with human curiosity about the fundamental nature of sound in the sea. From primitive philosophical and experimental studies of the velocity of sound in the sea and through centuries of successes and failures, the knowledge about underwater acoustics has developed into its high-technological status of today. In particular the development through the period from Aristotle (384–322 BC) to 1960 formed the basis for the tremendous research and development efforts we have witnessed in our time. In this paper most emphasis will be put on the development in underwater acoustics through this period of nearly 2300 years duration, and only the main trends in later research will be mentioned.     

Interfering modes and an axial wave in an underwater sound channel

Experiments on long-range propagation of low-frequency sound that were conducted starting from the mid-1980s indicate a complex character of propagation in an underwater sound channel, in which a source and a receiver are located close to the channel axis. A burst of energy propagating along the axis follows early arrivals, which are well described by the formulas of geometrical acoustics, in plots of acoustic intensity as a function of propagation time and hydrophone depth. This energy burst cannot be described using geometrical acoustics because of caustics with caustic beaks located near the channel axis. Very complex interference processes occur near these caustics. As the distance from the source grows, the dimensions of the interference vicinity increase and start to overlap producing a peculiar “axial wave.” For an arbitrary two-dimensional underwater sound channel, the axial wave can be represented as a sum of the first normal modes and a residue. This conclusion is based on the use of two representations for an acoustic field. The first of them includes the sum of ray components and an axial wave. The second representation consists of ray addends, the sum of the first normal modes, and a residue. Numerical results are obtained for a canonical profile of sound velocity at the frequency of 200 Hz for the distances of 1600–1650 km.     

Sound radiation from inflow turbulence in axial flow fans

The sound radiated when inflow turbulence is present in axial flow fans has been investigated. Theoretically, two noise radiating mechanisms can be identified: (i) interaction of turbulence with the rotor potential field results in a quadrupole-type volume source distribution, producing “flow-interaction” noise; (ii) impingement of turbulence on the blades results in a dipole-type (fluctuating force) surface source distribution, producing “fluctuating lift” noise. A theoretical expression for the flow interaction sound power in the upstream radiation field has been developed, in terms of parameters that can be experimentally determined by near field flow measurements involving spatial cross-correlations of the fluctuating axial velocity, with respect to both radial and circumferential position. Both these measurements and radiated sound pressure measurements have been made for eight- and ten-bladed rotors of relatively low tip Mach number (< 0·3). The sound pressure measurements revealed the occurrence of band-spreading of discrete tones at the blade passing frequency and its harmonics, as would be theoretically predicted for quadrupole-type sources here. The theoretical predictions and the measurements, respectively, of the sound power radiated upstream were compared. The results indicated that, for the fans tested, the “fluctuating lift” noise strongly predominated over the “flow-interaction” noise. The observed sound power levels were consistent with levels estimated from the theory.     

In situ Video-STM study of the potential-induced (1 × 1) → “hex” transition on Au(1 0 0) electrode surfaces in Cl containing solution

The potential-induced (1 × 1) → “hex” transition on Au(1 0 0) electrodes in 0.01 M Na₂SO₄ + 1 mM HCl was studied by in situ scanning tunneling microscopy at high time resolution (Video-STM). According to these observations the elementary units of the “hex” surface reconstruction, hexagonally-ordered strings in the Au surface layer, are highly dynamic nanoscale objects. Isolated “hex” strings exhibit dynamic fluctuations in structure and position on the millisecond timescale. These fluctuations exceed the mobility of multistring “hex” domains by several orders of magnitude and can be explained by collective dynamic processes within the strings. Furthermore, the observations reveal a novel 1D mass transport mechanism along the strings, details on the nucleation and growth of “hex” strings and complex string restructuring processes, facilitating “hex” domain ripening.     

Factors affecting sound exposure from firing an SA80 high-velocity rifle

The effect of distance on the peak sound pressure level and sound exposure level from an SA80 rifle has been investigated. Sound pressure waveforms were measured in two directions from the gun: downrange, from 50 m to 300 m, and to the left-hand side, from 0.3 m to 32 m. Some additional measurements were made to the right of the gun. Measurements made downrange showed three distinct features of the waveform; the shock wave from the supersonic bullet, the reflection from the ground, and the muzzle blast. The time elapsed between the shock wave and the muzzle blast increased with increasing distance: 94 ms for a distance of 50 m, and 507 ms for a distance of 300 m. The highest peak sound level downrange from a single round was between 151 dB(C) and 148 dB(C) at distances from 50 m to 300 m, and varied little if at all with distance. To the left of the gun, the peak sound pressure level of 161 dB(C) at 0.3 m reduced to 128 dB(C) at 32 m. The peak sound pressure level was estimated to be 137 dB(C) at a distance of approximately 20 m to the left-hand side. Hearing protection must therefore be worn by anyone closer than 20 m to a person firing. The peak sound pressure level was estimated to be 135 dB(C) at a distance of approximately 25 m and therefore hearing protection is recommended at distances of up to 25 m. The sound exposure level of 98 dB(A) at 20 m indicated that an observer at this distance could hear about 1440 rounds without hearing protection before the noise exposure reached the upper exposure action value specified in the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. Peak sound pressure levels were on average 2.4 dB higher at the left ear compared with the right ear.     

Using large eddy simulation to explore sound-source mechanisms in jets

This paper presents an analysis of data generated by means of large eddy simulation for a single-stream, isothermal Mach 0.9 jet. The acoustic field is decomposed into Fourier modes in the azimuthal direction, and filtered by means of a continuous wavelet transform in the temporal direction. This allows the identification of temporally localised, high-amplitude events in the radiated sound field for each of the azimuthal modes. Once these events have been localised, the flow field is analysed so as to determine their cause. Results show high-amplitude, intermittent sound radiation for azimuthal modes 0 and 1. The mode-0 radiation, which dominates low-angle emission, is found to result from the temporal modulation of a basic axisymmetric wave-packet structure within the flow. Similar intermittent activity, observed, again within the flow, for azimuthal mode 1 suggests a link between the modes 0 and 1 dynamics. Both the amplitude and spatial extent of the axisymmetric wave-packet are modulated, and the strongest axisymmetric propagative disturbances are found to radiate from the downstream end of the wave-packet at moments when the wave envelope becomes truncated. The observed behaviour is modelled using a line-source wave-packet ansatz which includes parameters that account for the said modulation. Inclusion of these parameters, which allow the wave-packet to “jitter” in a manner similar to that observed, leads to good quantitative agreement (accurate to within 1.5 dB), at low emission angles, with the acoustic field of the LES. This result is in contrast with results obtained using a time-averaged wave-packet (one which does not jitter), for which a 12 dB error is observed. This result shows that the said modulations are the salient source feature for the low-angle sound emission of the jet considered. Analysis of a longer time series shows the occurrence of several similar high-amplitude bursts in the axisymmetric mode of the acoustic pressure, and a calculation of the radiated sound for this longer time-series, again using the wave-packet ansatz, once again leads to good agreement with the LES (now accurate to within 1 dB).     

Noise-impact estimates per FTA and APTA criteria

In a recent paper, light-rail line noise exposures were predicted both in terms of maximum pass-by sound levels for comparison to APTA criteria and day-night average sound levels for comparison to FTA criteria. For the local land uses and ambient noise conditions of the project, the distances for the unmitigated pass-by noise exposures to attenuate to the APTA and FTA criteria limits were estimated and the numbers of included dwellings counted. The results found that the FTA impact-onset (i.e., “some-impact”) criterion curve yielded significantly greater noise exposed areas while the APTA criteria yielded results between those of the FTA “some”- and “severe”-impact curves. However, those results only applied to the specific project under evaluation. This paper attempts to extend and generalize the comparison by parametric computation of exposed areas using both the FTA and APTA procedures. Predicted exposures in this paper are compared as a function of background ambient sound levels, type of land use impacted, numbers of daytime and nighttime operations, and train pass-by maximum sound levels. At very low background ambient sound levels, FTA tended to predict the greatest exposure, while in very noisy environments, APTA predicted more exposure. APTA predicted more exposure with low numbers of daily and/or nighttime operations, and FTA predicted more exposure with high numbers, but the comparative exposures were strongly dependent upon background ambient sound level and land use. For train pass-by maximum sound levels, APTA tended to show more exposure for very quiet pass-bys and to be intermediate to FTA/some and FTA/severe for noisier events—with the comparative exposures strongly dependent upon background ambient and land use.     

Experimental and numerical study on aeroacoustic sound of axial flow fan in room air conditioner

Fan is one of the main noise sources of the room air-conditioners. Axial flow fans are widely used in the outdoor unit of split type air-conditioners. The interaction between the fan and the heat exchanger should be taken into consideration. However, only a few researches have been carried out on predicting the aeroacoustic noise because of the difficulty in obtaining detailed information of the flow field. This paper is to understand the generation mechanism of sound and to develop a prediction method for the flow field and the acoustic pressure field of the outdoor unit. Acoustic measurement is performed in a semi-anechoic chamber. Effects of each components is analyzed. Based on commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, Fluent, Fukano’s model is used to predict the overall sound pressure level of broadband noise. The predicted sound pressure levels based on original Fukano’s model are 7.66 dB and 7.42 dB lower than measurement results at 780 rpm and 684 rpm, respectively. And the errors are about 13%. However, when wake width and relative velocity are both calculated by numerical simulations and the distance to blade trailing edge is taken into consideration, the difference of sound pressure level between measurement and prediction is less than 3.4 dB and errors less than 5.5% while the distance is less than 10 mm. Thus, the distance to blade trailing edge should also be an important parameter for Fukano’s model. In comparison with experimental results, it is clearly shown that the Fukano method based on numerical simulation can provide more accuracy than the original Fukano model and numerical results are in a reliable level.     

Optical switch with low-phase transition temperature based on thin nanocrystalline VOx film

An optical switch is fabricated by using micromachining technology, which is based on thin nanocrystalline vanadium oxide (VO_x) film, and it consists of four layers: a silicon (Si) substrate layer, a VO_x layer, a Si₃N₄ buffer layer, and an aurum (Au) electrode layer. By applying a switching power supply to a pair of the Au electrodes, the optical switch is controlled to exhibit from an “on” state with semi-conducting phase to an “off” state with metallic phase. The optical switch performance is investigated, and testing results show that its extinction ratio is about 14 dB, its switching response time can achieve about 1.5 ms, and the power dissipation required for stimulating switching to work can be below about 15 mW at least, which is lower than the power dissipation of conventional optical switches based on microstructure thin vanadium dioxide (VO₂) films. This kind of optical switch is potential to be applied as optical switch for optical communication.     

Flanking transmission of metal stud walls with different junction details

Measurements of the normalised flanking sound level difference of different gypsum board flanking walls are reported. Results of a “standard” wall construction confirmed some results of the current draft standard of DIN 4109. Different constructions with various junction details and different wall constructions are described and measurement results are presented. By additional measurements on the walls, a prediction model for the weighted flanking level difference is suggested, based on the methodology of EN 12354. For the flanking transmission prediction of path Ff, three transmission paths are proposed. The model gives good agreement between calculated and measured weighted flanking level difference except for the case where the transmission along the inner lining of the flanking wall is dominant. In this case the prediction underestimates measurements by up to 7 dB.