The contribution of a lateral wave in simulating low-frequency sound fields in an irregular waveguide with a liquid bottom

A further development of a previously proposed approach to calculating the sound field in an arbitrarily irregular ocean is presented. The approach is based on solving the first-order causal mode equations, which are equivalent to the boundary-value problem for acoustic wave equations in terms of the cross-section method. For the mode functions depending on the horizontal coordinate, additional terms are introduced in the cross-section equations to allow for the multilayer structure of the medium. A numerical solution to the causal equations is sought using the fundamental matrix equation. For the modes of the discrete spectrum and two fixed low frequencies, calculations are performed for an irregular two-layer waveguide model with fluid sediments, which is close to the actual conditions of low-frequency sound propagation in the coastal zone of the oceanic shelf. The calculated propagation loss curves are used as an example for comparison with results that can be obtained for the given waveguide model with the use of adiabatic and one-way propagation approximations.