Directionality of generalized acoustic sensors of arbitrary order

For several decades there has been a great deal of interest in acoustic sensors that can make multiple measurements at a single point in the ocean. The order of such sensors has been defined by linking it to the order of the Taylor series approximation of the pressure field at that point. Following this definition, the pressure, vector, and dyadic sensor is of order zero, one, and two, respectively. For this theoretical study, a multichannel three-dimensional spatial filter is derived for a directional acoustic sensor of arbitrary order. Explicit formulas are found for the filter coefficients that maximize the array gain (directivity index) of the filter as well as an explicit expression for the maximum array gain (directivity index). This process is repeated for the case of a first-order null placed in the direction opposite to the look direction of the multichannel filter. Finally, an example is presented which tracks the array gain and beamwidth of a third-order acoustic sensor as the order of the null is assigned values 0, 1, 2, and 3.     

Array gain for a conformal acoustic vector sensor array:An experimental study

An acoustic vector sensor can measure the components of particle velocity and the acoustic pressure at the same point simultaneously, which provides a larger array gain against the ambient noise and a higher angular resolution than the omnidirectional pressure sensor. This paper presents an experimental study of array gain for a conformal acoustic vector sensor array in a practical environment. First, the manifold vector is calculated using the real measured data so that the effects of array mismatches can be minimized. Second, an optimal beamformer with a specific spatial response on the basis of the stable directivity of the ambient noise is designed, which can effectively suppress the ambient noise.Experimental results show that this beamformer for the conformal acoustic vector sensor array provides good signal-tonoise ratio enhancement and is more advantageous than the delay-and-sum and minimum variance distortionless response beamformers.     

Development of a pseudo-uniform structural quantity for use in active structural acoustic control of simply supported plates: an analytical comparison

Active structural acoustic control has been an area of research and development for over two decades with an interest in searching for an "optimal" error quantity. Current error quantities typically require the use of either a large number of transducers distributed across the entire structure, or a distributed shaped sensor, such as polyvinylidene difluoride. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a control objective function for flat, simply-supported plates that is based on transverse and angular velocity components combined into a single composite structural velocity quantity, termed V(comp). Although multiple transducers are used, they are concentrated at a single location to eliminate the need for transducers spanning most or all of the structure. When used as the objective function in an active control situation, squared V(comp) attenuates the acoustic radiation over a large range of frequencies. The control of squared V(comp) is compared to other objective functions including squared velocity, volume velocity, and acoustic energy density. The analysis presented indicates that benefits of this objective function include control of radiation from numerous structural modes, control largely independent of sensor location, and need to measure V(comp) at a single location and not distributed measurements across the entire structure.     

Design of a multipolar weighting for acoustic antennae

This work describes the development of an acoustic antenna for which several kinds of weightings have been studied to obtain a narrow directivity with attenuated rear lobes. Later, this antenna will be used in a new device to measure the sound absorption coefficient of flat panels in industrial sites. It is often necessary, although quite difficult, to measure acoustic absorption coefficients in partially diffuse conditions, because predicting the sound pressure level at, for instance, a workplace requires in situ characterization of the facings. This antenna has been optimized so that the major part of the received acoustic energy would come from one portion only of an investigated facing present in an industrial room. The multipolar weighting is quite efficient because the associated directivity can be carried out with a limited number of microphones. The calculation technique is improved to achieve a constant sensitivity antenna within the desired frequency range with most of the secondary lobes rejected. The designed receiving system is composed of four antennae, each equipped with five sensors. The directivity, at 150-5000 Hz range, has been verified in an anechoic room.     

传声器阵列对高频弱声源的声成像识别方法

研究了传声器阵列对高频弱声源的识别定位方法。该方法根据高频声源的指向性和阵列探测特性等特点,提出了利用信噪比加权方法提高有效阵元对声成像的贡献,根据信噪比的大小对每个阵元添加不同的权值,可以显著提高传声器阵列对高频弱声源的声像清晰度。仿真分析了阵元加权和不加权两种方法对阵列声成像结果的影响,以某型号笔记本电脑电路板噪声为对象进行的实验表明,在阵列测量中充分利用有效阵元信号可以实现对声压级低达10~20dB的微弱噪声源的精确测量。      

The study of underwater acoustic communication technology based-on the acoustic vector sensor

Underwater acoustic (UWA) communication based on an acoustic vector sensor is studied. The method of joint weighted sound pressure and velocity processing is used in phase modulation high-speed UWA communication system combined with coherent demodulation and adaptive equalization algorithm to demodulate and decode. Whereas the sound intensity could be used instead of pressure for frequency decoding in frequency modulation UWA communication system. The results of theory analysis, simulation calculations and lake trials have shown that either in phase modulation or in frequency modulation UWA communication system, the processing gain can be evidently increased, so that the BER (bit error rate) can be effectively reduced and the telemetry distance can be enlarged by using the acoustic vector sensor.     

Reconstructing the vibro-acoustic quantities on a highly non-spherical surface using the Helmholtz equation least squares method

This paper presents helpful guidelines and strategies for reconstructing the vibro-acoustic quantities on a highly non-spherical surface by using the Helmholtz equation least squares (HELS). This study highlights that a computationally simple code based on the spherical wave functions can produce an accurate reconstruction of the acoustic pressure and normal surface velocity on planar surfaces. The key is to select the optimal origin of the coordinate system behind the planar surface, choose a target structural wavelength to be reconstructed, set an appropriate stand-off distance and microphone spacing, use a hybrid regularization scheme to determine the optimal number of the expansion functions, etc. The reconstructed vibro-acoustic quantities are validated rigorously via experiments by comparing the reconstructed normal surface velocity spectra and distributions with the benchmark data obtained by scanning a laser vibrometer over the plate surface. Results confirm that following the proposed guidelines and strategies can ensure the accuracy in reconstructing the normal surface velocity up to the target structural wavelength, and produce much more satisfactory results than a straight application of the original HELS formulations. Experiment validations on a baffled, square plate were conducted inside a fully anechoic chamber.     

Noise immunity of a combined hydroacoustic receiver

A statistical analysis of the noise immunity of a combined receiver is performed for the observation of a fluctuating tone signal against the background of underwater dynamic noise. The analysis is based on the experimental data obtained in deep ocean with the use of two four-component combined hydroacoustic receivers positioned at depths of 150 and 300 m. Theoretical expressions are obtained for the signal-to-noise ratio of a combined receiver, for reciprocal spectral levels of the signal and noise in both narrow and wide frequency bands. The definition of the combined receiver gain is introduced in terms of the functions of a common single-point coherence for the acoustic pressure and the particle velocity in an acoustic wave. According to the experimental data obtained, in the case of multiplicative processing, the maximal gain in the signal-to-noise ratio of a combined receiver, as compared to a hydrophone-based square-law detector, can reach 15–16 dB for the horizontal channel and 30 dB for the vertical channel of the combined receiver in the case of the compensation of opposing flows of the signal and noise energy.     

Active noise control with linear control source and sensor arrays for a noise barrier

A study is conducted on minimizing the sum of the squared acoustic pressures with a linear array of control sources and a perpendicular linear array of error sensors, placed above the top of a noise barrier. Particular angular orientations, with respect to the center of the barrier top, and spacings of the linear arrays of control sources and error sensors result in moderate to significant additional reduction of the acoustic pressure in the shadow zone. Visual inspection of the sound pressure field, with and without active noise control, found that uniform and significant additional insertion loss can be generated near the barrier. Numerical simulations were conducted to test the proposed method. For separations between control sources and error sensors much less than a quarter wavelength of the primary noise disturbance, results show that the angular orientation, of the combined linear control source and sensor arrays, is a weak factor for acoustic pressure reduction in the shadow zone. Weak angle dependence serves as an advantage to the proposed method, which yields uniform performance for any angular orientation. An angular orientation involving the alignment of the furthest error sensor with the first diffracting edge of the barrier and the primary source was observed to perform well for a variety of frequencies, since the spacing between error sensors and between control sources is of the order of a quarter-wavelength. Improved noise control in the shadow zone of a barrier is achieved by the use of two control sources and angular orientation as mentioned above. Further spatial extension of the area of reduced acoustic pressure is possible by utilizing an increased number of control sources.     

The identification of tyre induced vehicle interior noise

Sound transmission into a vehicle is classified as either airborne or structure borne sound. From the point view of noise control, the reduction of noise transferred by different paths requires different solutions. Coherence function analysis is often used to identify transmission paths. However it can be difficult to separate the airborne from structure borne components. The principle of acoustic reciprocity offers a convenient method for overcoming this difficulty. The principal states that the transfer function between an acoustic volume velocity source and an acoustic receiver is independent of a reversal of the position of source and receiver. The work done on this study involves exciting a stationary tyre and measuring the surface velocity of the tyre at a number of discrete points. The acoustic transfer functions between each point on the tyre and a receiver point are measured reciprocally. Two sets of measurements are then combined to yield a measure of the sound pressure due to a point force on the tyre via the acoustic transmission path only. This technique also provides information on the relative contributions of various regions of the tyre wall to the resultant noise. Also the sound radiation characteristics, the horn effect, and resonance at the wheel housing are identified through the reciprocal measurement.     

Underwater measurement of narrowband sound power and directivity using Supersonic Intensity in Reverberant Environments

A laboratory underwater acoustic measurement technique, Supersonic Intensity in Reverberant Environments (SIRE), is developed analytically and validated experimentally and numerically. Unlike standard free or diffuse field techniques, SIRE enables the measurement of narrowband sound power and directivity in an environment with inexact field conditions. The technique takes advantage of underwater vector sensors, measuring only acoustic pressure and the normal component of particle velocity/acceleration, and supersonic wavenumber filtering in the near field of a source. The result is outward-propagating acoustic waves separated from interfering incoming and/or evanescent waves. The SIRE technique was experimentally applied to monopole and dipole sources and the results are compared with theory and standard methods. SIRE is shown to accurately measure radiated sound power to within the limits of ANSI S12.51 and to accurately measure the directivity indices of simple sources to within ±3 dB. A coupled finite element/boundary element model of a point-driven, thin-walled cylinder is also developed to establish the limitations of the SIRE technique. The model results show that the measurement standoff distance should be less than the reciprocal of the largest wavenumber in the frequency band of interest. Furthermore, the maximum measurement grid spacing must be less than twice the standoff distance.     

基于超指向性多极子矢量阵的水下低频声源方位估计方法研究

针对水下低频声源的方位估计问题,基于基元紧密排列的二维矢量阵,建立了一种超指向性波束形成方法.根据矢量基元差分运算构建各阶多极子模型,获得了几乎与频率无关的模态函数,并经加权计算可在低频条件下实现超指向性波束,以解决阵列孔径对波束性能的限制.同时,结合输出信噪比最大准则所得波束,分析了超指向性波束形成算法的稳定性与波导的影响程度,探索模态阶数与阵列参数的选取原则.通过阵列性能的仿真计算与实际阵列的测量数据表明,该算法可在小尺寸阵列孔径下获得良好的阵列波束,兼具了水下线型超指向性阵和环形超指向性阵的优点,可有效实现水下低频声源的水平方位估计;且波束性能可通过调节模态阶数与基元间距以达到最佳,并受水下声波导多途与频散效应影响有限.     

Delay and Doppler spreads in underwater acoustic particle velocity channels

Signal processing and communication in acoustic particle velocity channels using vector sensors are of interest in the underwater medium. Due to the presence of multiple propagation paths, a mobile receiver collects the signal with different delays and Doppler shifts. This introduces certain delay and Doppler spreads in particle velocity channels. In this paper, these channel spreads are characterized using the zero-crossing rates of channel responses in frequency and time domain. Useful expressions for delay and Doppler spreads are derived in terms of the key channel parameters mean angle of arrival and angle spread. These results are needed for design and performance prediction of systems that utilize underwater acoustic particle velocity and pressure channels.     

Acoustic vector sensor signal processing

Acoustic vector sensor simultaneously, colocately and directly measures orthogonal components of particle velocity as well as pressure at single point in acoustic field so that is possible to improve performance of traditional underwater acoustic measurement devices or detection systems and extends new ideas for solving practical underwater acoustic engineering problems. Although acoustic vector sensor history of appearing in underwater acoustic area is no long, but with huge and potential military demands, acoustic vector sensor has strong development trend in last decade, it is evolving into a one of important underwater acoustic technology. Under this background, we try to review recent progress in study on acoustic vector sensor signal processing, such as signal detection, DOA estimation, beamforming, and so on.     

Detection of number of sources and DOA estimation based on the combined information processing of pressure and particle velocity using acoustic vector sensor array

In order to solve the problem of DOA(direction of arrival)estimation of underwater remote targets,a novel subspace-decomposition method based on the cross covariance matrix of the pressure and the particle velocity of acoustic vector sensor arrays(AVSA)was proposed. Whereafter,using spatio-temporal virtual tapped-delay-line,a new eigenvector-based criteria of detection of number of sources and of subspace partition is also presented.The theoretical analysis shows that the new source detection and direction finding method is different from existing AVSA based DOA estimation methods using particle velocity information of acoustic vector sensor(AVS)as an independent array element.It is entirely based on the combined information processing of pressure and particle velocity,has better estimation performance than existing methods in isotropic noise field.Computer simulations with data from lake trials demonstrate,the proposed method is effective and obviously outperforms existing methods in resolution and accuracy in the case of low signal-to-noise ratio(SNR).     

Passive fathometer processing

Ocean acoustic noise can be processed efficiently to extract Green's function information between two receivers. By using noise array-processing techniques, it has been demonstrated that a passive array can be used as a fathometer [Siderius, et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 120, 1315-1323 (2006)]. Here, this approach is derived in both frequency and time domains and the output corresponds to the reflection sequence. From this reflection sequence, it is possible to extract seabed layering. In the ocean waveguide, most of the energy is horizontally propagating, whereas the bottom information is contained in the vertically propagating noise. Extracting the seabed information requires a dense array, since the resolution of the bottom layer is about half the array spacing. If velocity sensors are used instead of pressure sensors, the array spacing requirement can be relaxed and simulations show that just one vertical velocity sensor is sufficient.     

水平层状各向异性介质中电磁场并矢Green函数的一种高效算法

利用高阶窗函数结合连分式展开等技术研究并建立一种水平层状各向异性介质中电磁场并矢Green函数的快速有效算法. 首先借助于高阶窗函数将构成并矢Green函数的Sommerfeld积分转化成广义快速下降路径上积分,并给出高阶窗函数Hankel变换的一种新的更高阶幂级数展开式以及严格的Lommel函数表达式,以满足在全空间上高精度计算并矢Green函数的要求. 在此基础上,用Bessel函数的零点将积分路径划分成一系列小区间并通过改进的自适应Gauss求积公式确定各个小区间上的积分值,然后引入连分式展开法对各个区间上的积分值求和,从而使整个积分的收敛效率得到大大提高. 最后通过数值结果验证本方法的有效性. 关键词： 高阶窗函数 连分式展开 并矢Green函数 层状各向异性介质     

一种基于矢量水听器阵的归一化加权Capon波束形成方法

矢量水听器同时拾取声场的标量信息声压和矢量信息振速。本文在分析了各向同性噪声场下矢量水听器阵Capon波束形成方位谱的基础上，提出了一种归一化加权Capon波束形成的改进算法，并给出了方位谱的表达式。本方法不需要特征分解，并且得到的是通常意义上的功率谱(可用于估计信号的能量)。仿真计算表明，此方法的性能优于Capon法，可大大提高方位估计的精度。     

Near-field acoustic intensity measurements using an accelerometer-based underwater intensity vector sensor

An accelerometer-based underwater acoustic intensity vector sensor is used to measure the acoustic nearfield of a single spherical source, and a pair of sources that vibrate in or out of phase with each other. The intensity sensor consists of co-located pressure and inertial sensors within a neutrally buoyant probe body. The design of this probe has been published previously. The measurements were performed in a large tank at a frequency of 5 kHz for two sources of different sizes, corresponding to ka values of 0.7 and 1.2 respectively, where k is acoustic wavenumber and a is the source radius. By way of validation, the acoustic intensity field from two closely spaced, interacting spherical radiators is predicted using the exact theory of the translational addition theorem for spherical wave functions. The predictions using this theory compare favorably well with the measured intensity field. Beam pattern and calibration data obtained for the intensity sensor suggest that underwater acoustic intensity generated by simple and complex sources can be measured to an accuracy of ±1 dB provided that ka is less than approximately 0.2.