Flow noise of an underwater vector sensor embedded in a flexible towed array

The objective of this work is to simulate the flow noise of a vector sensor embedded in a flexible towed array. The mathematical model developed, based on long-wavelength analysis of the inner space of a cylindrical multipole source, predicts the reduction of the flow noise of a vector sensor embedded in an underwater flexible towed array by means of intensimetric processing (cross-spectral density calculation of oscillatory velocity and sound-pressure-sensor responses). It is found experimentally that intensimetric processing results in flow noise reduction by 12-25 dB at mean levels and by 10-30 dB in fluctuations compared to a squared oscillatory velocity channel. The effect of flow noise suppression in the intensimetry channel relative to a squared sound pressure channel is observed, but only for frequencies above the threshold. These suppression values are 10-15 dB at mean noise levels and 3-6 dB in fluctuations. At towing velocities of 1.5-3 ms(-1) and an accumulation time of 98.3 s, the threshold frequency in fluctuations is between 30 and 45 Hz.     

Highly directional acoustic receivers

The theoretical directivity of a single combined acoustic receiver, a device that can measure many quantities of an acoustic field at a collocated point, is presented here. The formulation is developed using a Taylor series expansion of acoustic pressure about the origin of a Cartesian coordinate system. For example, the quantities measured by a second-order combined receiver, denoted a dyadic sensor, are acoustic pressure, the three orthogonal components of acoustic particle velocity, and the nine spatial gradients of the velocity vector. The power series expansion, which can be of any order, is cast into an expression that defines the directivity of a single receiving element. It is shown that a single highly directional dyadic sensor can have a directivity index of up to 9.5 dB. However, there is a price to pay with highly directive sensors; these sensors can be significantly more sensitive to nonacoustic noise sources.     

Miniature photonic-crystal hydrophone optimized for ocean acoustics

This work reports on an optical hydrophone that is insensitive to hydrostatic pressure, yet capable of measuring acoustic pressures as low as the background noise in the ocean in a frequency range of 1 Hz to 100 kHz. The miniature hydrophone consists of a Fabry-Perot interferometer made of a photonic-crystal reflector interrogated with a single-mode fiber and is compatible with existing fiber-optic technologies. Three sensors with different acoustic power ranges placed within a sub-wavelength sized hydrophone head allow a high dynamic range in the excess of 160 dB with a low harmonic distortion of better than -30 dB. A method for suppressing cross-coupling between sensors in the same hydrophone head is also proposed. A prototype was fabricated, assembled, and tested. The sensitivity was measured from 100 Hz to 100 kHz, demonstrating a sound-pressure-equivalent noise spectral density down to 12 μPa/Hz(1/2), a flatband wider than 10 kHz, and very low distortion.     

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。      

Tracking sperm whales with a towed acoustic vector sensor

Passive acoustic towed linear arrays are increasingly used to detect marine mammal sounds during mobile anthropogenic activities. However, these arrays cannot resolve between signals arriving from the port or starboard without vessel course changes or multiple cable deployments, and their performance is degraded by vessel self-noise and non-acoustic mechanical vibration. In principle acoustic vector sensors can resolve these directional ambiguities, as well as flag the presence of non-acoustic contamination, provided that the vibration-sensitive sensors can be successfully integrated into compact tow modules. Here a vector sensor module attached to the end of a 800 m towed array is used to detect and localize 1813 sperm whale "clicks" off the coast of Sitka, AK. Three methods were used to identify frequency regimes relatively free of non-acoustic noise contamination, and then the active intensity (propagating energy) of the signal was computed between 4-10 kHz along three orthogonal directions, providing unambiguous bearing estimates of two sperm whales over time. These bearing estimates are consistent with those obtained via conventional methods, but the standard deviations of the vector sensor bearing estimates are twice those of the conventionally-derived bearings. The resolved ambiguities of the bearings deduced from vessel course changes match the vector sensor predictions.     

Active control of the volume acquisition noise in functional magnetic resonance imaging: method and psychoacoustical evaluation.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) provides a noninvasive tool for observing correlates of neural activity in the brain while a subject listens to sound. However, intense acoustic noise is generated in the process of capturing MR images. This noise stimulates the auditory nervous system, limiting the dynamic range available for displaying stimulus-driven activity. The noise is potentially damaging to hearing and is distracting for the subject. In an active noise control (ANC) system, a reference sample of a noise is processed to form a sound which adds destructively with the noise at the listener's ear. We describe an implementation of ANC in the electromagnetically hostile and physically compact MRI scanning environment. First, a prototype system was evaluated psychoacoustically in the laboratory, using the electrical drive to a noise-generating loudspeaker as the reference. This system produced 10-20 dB of subjective noise-reduction between 250 Hz and 1 kHz, and smaller amounts at higher frequencies. The system was modified to operate in a real MR scanner where the reference was obtained by recording the acoustic scanner noise. Objective reduction by 30-40 dB of the most intense component in scanner noises was realized between 500 Hz and 3500 Hz, and subjective reduction of 12 dB and 5 dB in tests at frequencies of 600 Hz and at 1.9 kHz, respectively. Although the benefit of ANC is limited by transmission paths to the cochlea other than air-conduction routes from the auditory meatus, ANC achieves worthwhile attenuation even in the frequency range of maximum bone conduction (1.5-2 kHz). ANC should, therefore, be generally useful during auditory fMRI.     

基于声矢量传感器的分布式定位系统在水下宽带声源定位中的应用

提出了基于声矢量传感器的分布式浮标网络定位系统,研究了不同应用背景下单个声矢量传感器的测向算法,推导了目标DOA估计的Cramer-Rao界,给出了分层海水介质中多个声矢量传感器的几何定位算法。数值仿真结果表明:(1)系统的定位性能强烈依赖于接收信噪比;(2)该系统适用于单一强声源的定位。     

船用三通调节阀流-固耦合噪声数值模拟

针对船用PN10DN32三通调节阀噪声声压频谱、声指向性等声学特性规律不明确,噪声声压级是否满足使用要求的问题,基于流-固耦合理论,同时考虑流-固耦合面及流体域内的脉动声学激励源,开展阀门噪声数值模拟研究。分别对三通调节阀在80%及60%开度阀外1 m处的噪声进行数值模拟,分析研究噪声声压频谱特性及声指向性规律。结果表明：80%及60%开度下的噪声声压级分别为49.14 dB(A)、50.79 dB(A),均小于60 d B(A)的噪声限制,满足使用要求。该文为船用三通调节阀噪声数值模拟提供了理论及方法参考。     

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.     

Speakers' comfort and voice level variation in classrooms: laboratory research

Teachers adjust their voice levels under different classroom acoustics conditions, even in the absence of background noise. Laboratory experiments have been conducted in order to understand further this relationship and to determine optimum room acoustic conditions for speaking. Under simulated acoustic environments, talkers do modify their voice levels linearly with the measure voice support, and the slope of this relationship is referred to as room effect. The magnitude of the room effect depends highly on the instruction used and on the individuals. Group-wise, the average room effect ranges from -0.93 dB/dB, with free speech, to -0.1 dB/dB with other less demanding communication tasks as reading and talking at short distances. The room effect for some individuals can be as strong as -1.7 dB/dB. A questionnaire investigation showed that the acoustic comfort for talking in classrooms, in the absence of background noise, is correlated to the decay times derived from an impulse response measured from the mouth to the ears of a talker, and that there is a maximum of preference for decay times between 0.4 and 0.5 s. Teachers with self-reported voice problems prefer higher decay times to speak in than their healthy colleagues.     

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.     

Speech coding in the auditory nerve: V. Vowels in background noise

Responses of auditory-nerve fibers to steady-state, two-formant vowels in low-pass background noise (S/N = 10 dB) were obtained in anesthetized cats. For fibers over a wide range of characteristic frequencies (CFs), the peaks in discharge rate at the onset of the vowel stimuli were nearly eliminated in the presence of noise. In contrast, strong effects of noise on fine time patterns of discharge were limited to CF regions that are far from the formant frequencies. One effect is a reduction in the amplitude of the response component at the fundamental frequency in the high-CF regions and for CFs between F1 and F2 when the formants are widely separated. A reduction in the amplitude of the response components at the formant frequencies, with concomitant increase in components near CF or low-frequency components occurs in CF regions where the signal-to-noise ratio is particularly low. The processing schemes that were effective for estimating the formant frequencies and fundamental frequency of vowels in quiet generally remain adequate in moderate-level background noise. Overall, the discharge patterns contain many cues for distinctions among the vowel stimuli, so that the central processor should be able to identify the different vowels, consistent with psychophysical performance at moderate signal-to-noise ratios.     

Theoretical detection ranges for acoustic based manatee avoidance technology

The West Indian manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) has become endangered partly because of watercraft collisions in Florida's coastal waterways. To reduce the number of collisions, warning systems based upon detecting manatee vocalizations have been proposed. One aspect of the feasibility of an acoustically based warning system relies upon the distance at which a manatee vocalization is detectable. Assuming a mixed spreading model, this paper presents a theoretical analysis of the system detection capabilities operating within various background and watercraft noise conditions. This study combines measured source levels of manatee vocalizations with the modeled acoustic properties of manatee habitats to develop a method for determining the detection range and hydrophone spacing requirements for acoustic based manatee avoidance technologies. In quiet environments (background noise approximately 70 dB) it was estimated that manatee vocalizations are detectable at approximately 250 m, with a 6 dB detection threshold, In louder environments (background noise approximately 100dB) the detection range drops to 2.5 m. In a habitat with 90 dB of background noise, a passing boat with a maximum noise floor of 120 dB would be the limiting factor when it is within approximately 100 m of a hydrophone. The detection range was also found to be strongly dependent on the manatee vocalization source level.     

Direction-of-arrival estimation for extensible acoustic vector sensor array

Aiming at high-resolution estimation of the direction-of-arrival of closely-spaced sources at low signal-to-noise ratio regions, this paper proposes a DOA estimation algorithm that is suitable for an extensible acoustic vector sensor array. Taking the 3D array composed of the minimum number(four) of acoustic vector sensors as the acquisition module, a virtual array having the same structure as the original array structure is extended in the three-dimensional space based on the aperture expansion characteristic of higher-order cumulants. The virtual array and the real array can construct a matrix with rotational invariance, which contains the angular information for estimating DOA. The Cramer-Rao bound of the algorithm are derived. We analyze the influence of SNR, the number of snapshots and the elevation angle on the performance of the algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better noise suppression ability and higher resolution in DOA estimation than the conventional ESPRIT algorithm using the acoustic vector array. Experiments are conducted to validate the proposed algorithm.     

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.     

Quantifying seismic survey reverberation off the Alaskan North Slope

Shallow-water airgun survey activities off the North Slope of Alaska generate impulsive sounds that are the focus of much regulatory attention. Reverberation from repetitive airgun shots, however, can also increase background noise levels, which can decrease the detection range of nearby passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) systems. Typical acoustic metrics for impulsive signals provide no quantitative information about reverberation or its relative effect on the ambient acoustic environment. Here, two conservative metrics are defined for quantifying reverberation: a minimum level metric measures reverberation levels that exist between airgun pulse arrivals, while a reverberation metric estimates the relative magnitude of reverberation vs expected ambient levels in the hypothetical absence of airgun activity, using satellite-measured wind data. The metrics are applied to acoustic data measured by autonomous recorders in the Alaskan Beaufort Sea in 2008 and demonstrate how seismic surveys can increase the background noise over natural ambient levels by 30-45 dB within 1 km of the activity, by 10-25 dB within 15 km of the activity, and by a few dB at 128 km range. These results suggest that shallow-water reverberation would reduce the performance of nearby PAM systems when monitoring for marine mammals within a few kilometers of shallow-water seismic surveys.     

压电矢量传感器的低噪声设计

针对压电矢量传感器的低噪声设计问题,建立了基于压电敏感器件、悬挂结构、前置放大电路及电缆的同振式矢量传感器等效自噪声分析模型;结合敏感器件的低噪声设计、悬挂结构对自噪声的影响以及前置放大电路低噪声匹配等内容提出了一种低噪声设计方法。设计了低噪声矢量传感器样机,研制了自噪声测量平台并对样机进行了测试。结果表明:样机的等效噪声声压谱级达到了55.5 dB/√Hz2@200 Hz,低于同频率Knudsen零级海况下海洋环境噪声;测试结果与设计结果相符,验证了低噪声设计方法的有效性,也为压电矢量传感器的低噪声设计提供了理论依据。      

Noise reduction algorithm of corrosion acoustic emission signal based on short-time fractal dimension enhancement

The general corrosion and local corrosion of Q235 steel were tested by acoustic emission(AE) detecting system under 6%FeCl_3-6H_O solution to effectively detect the corrosion acoustic emission signal from complex background noise.The short-time fractal dimension and discrete fractional cosine transform methods are combined to reduce noise.The input SNR is 0~15 dB while corrosion acoustic emission signals being added with white noise,color noise and pink noise respectively.The results show that the output signal-to-noise ratio is improved by up to 8 dB compared with discrete cosine transform and discrete fractional cosine transform.The above-mentioned noise reduction method is of significance for the identification of corrosion induced acoustic emission signals and the evaluation of the metal remaining life.     

分布式矢量传感器对宽带源被动定位的方法研究

本文给出了两种基于矢量传感器的被动定位方法。一般来说，对目标进行被动定位可以通过方位信息或时延信息来实现。单个矢量传感器就可以实现目标方位估计，而对多个矢量传感器接收的信号进行互相关运算即可得到目标对各矢量传感器的时延信息。本文先给出了利用方位信息进行被动定位的方法，然后给出了利用分布式矢量传感器进行方位一时延信息联合被动定位的新方法，并通过仿真分析对这两种方法的定位性能进行了比较。     

A robust super-resolution approach with sparsity constraint in acoustic imaging

Acoustic imaging is a standard technique for mapping acoustic source powers and positions from limited observations on microphone sensors, which often causes an ill-conditioned inverse problem. In this article, we firstly improve the forward model of acoustic power propagation by considering background noises at the sensor array, and the propagation uncertainty caused by wind tunnel effects. We then propose a robust super-resolution approach via sparsity constraint for acoustic imaging in strong background noises. The sparsity parameter is adaptively derived from the sparse distribution of source powers. The proposed approach can jointly reconstruct source powers and positions, as well as the background noise power. Our approach is compared with the conventional beamforming, deconvolution and sparse regularization methods by simulated, wind tunnel data and hybrid data respectively. It is feasible to apply the proposed approach for effectively mapping monopole sources in wind tunnel tests.