Underwater acoustics

This work incorporates previous work done by Guerra and the application of fluid dynamics. The structure attached to the turbine will cause unsteady fluctuations in the flow, and ultimately affect the acoustic pressure. The work of Guerra is based on a lot of assumptions and simplifications to the geometry of the turbine and structure. This work takes the geometry of the actual turbine, and uses computational fluid dynamic software to numerically model the flow around the turbine structure. Varying the angle of the attack altered the results, and as the angle increased the noise levels along with the sound pulse, and unsteady loading increased. Increasing the number of blades and reducing the chord length both reduced the unsteady loading.

Oyster reefs are biodiverse communities that provide many ecological and commercial benefits. However, oyster reefs have declined around the world from human activities. Oyster reef restoration programs have begun to limit some of the decline, but the need for determining the success of a program has been problematic. Passive acoustic techniques can use naturally occurring sounds produced by organisms to assess biodiversity. Passive acoustics was utilized to compare the sounds in natural and restored oyster reefs, with special attention on snapping shrimp (Alpheus spp.) snap sounds, in the St. Lucie Estuary, Florida over a one year period. Season, estuary region, habitat and day period had an effect on sound production. Passive acoustic monitoring of snapping shrimp sound production may be a useful non-destructive technique for monitoring the progress of oyster reef restoration projects once further correlations are established between environmental effects and sound production.

As part of a project to study internal waves, FAU plans to utilize an AUV to tow a magnetometer to study electromagnetic signatures from internal waves. This research is focused on the electromagnetic noise issues related to using an AUV to tow the magnetic sensor package. There are active sources of electromagnetic noise caused by an AUV that are present in addition to those induced by the Earth's magnetic field and permanent magnets. To characterize the magnetic noise associated with the AUV magnetometer tow system, the various active source elements were identified, the orientation sensitivity of the sensors being used was determined, and the magnetic anomaly of a similar AUV which may be eventually be used in a magnetic sensing arrangement was measured. The results are used to show the proposed sensing arrangement will likely not achieve the necessary sensitivity to measure subtle internal wave signals.

This thesis presents the development of a Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) capable high bit rate acoustic modem operating at high frequencies. A MIMO channel estimation technique based on Least-Squares (LS) estimation is developed here. Channel deconvolution is completed using a Minimum Mean-Square Error (MMSE) Linear Equalizer (LE). An Interference Cancellation Linear Equalizer (ICLE) is used to provide the theoretical limit of the MIMO deconvolution process. The RMSE of the channel estimation process was 1.83 % and 6.1810 %, respectively for simulated and experimental data. Using experimental data, the RMSE before MIMO deconvolution process was 141.3 % and dropped down to 60.224 % and to 4.4545 %, respectively after LE and ICLE. At raw reception, the RMSE was 101.83 % and dropped down to 9.36 % and to 1.86 % using respectively LE and ICLE with simulated data.

This thesis proposes to estimate the speed of a moving acoustic source by either linear or non linear processing of the resulting Doppler shift present in a high-frequency pilot tone. The source is an acoustic modem (Hermes) which currently uses moving average to estimate and compensate for Doppler shift. A new auto regressive approach to Doppler estimation (labeled IIR method in the text) promises to give a better estimate. The results for a simulated peak velocity of 2 m/s in the presence of additive noise showed an RMSE of 0.23 m/s using moving average vs. 0.00018 m/s for the auto regressive approach. The SNR was 75 dB. The next objective was to compare the estimated Doppler velocity obtained using the two algorithms with the experimental values recorded in real time. The setup consisted of a receiver hydrophone attached to a towing carriage that moved with a known velocity with respect to a stationary acoustic source. The source transmitted 375 kHz pilot tone. The received pilot tone data were preprocessed using the two algorithms to estimate both Doppler shift and Doppler velocity. The accuracy of the algorithms was compared against the true velocity values of the carriage. The RMSE for a message from experiments conducted indoor for constant velocity of 0.4 m/s was 0.6055 m/s using moving average, 0.0780 m/s using auto regressive approach. The SNIR was 6.3 dB.

This work seeks to understand water turbine noise generation and to make preliminary estimations of the noise levels. Any structure attached to a turbine upstream its blades will generate unsteady fluctuating loads on the blade's surface, which are proportional to the radiated acoustic pressure. The noise levels of a simplified turbine based on existing designs surpass the ambient noise levels of the ocean at low frequencies (< 20 Hz) by approximately 50 dB ref 1 μPa and stay under the ambient noise levels at higher frequencies for a blade-passing frequency of 0.83 Hz and point of observation (100 m, 45 degrees, 45 degrees) from the hub. Streamlining the cross-section of the upstream structure as well as reducing its width decrease the noise levels by approximately 40 dB ref 1 μPa, at low frequencies and moderately increase them at higher frequencies. Increasing the structure-rotor distance decreases the noise levels with increasing frequencies (> 30 Hz).

Sound propagation in a waveguide is greatly dependent on the acoustic properties of the boundaries. The effect of these properties can be described by a bottom reflection coefficient RB, and surface reflection coefficient RS. Two methods for estimating reflection coefficients are used in this research. The first, the ratio method, is based on the variations of the Green's function with depth utilizing the ratio of the wavenumber spectra at two depths. The second, the pole method, is based on the wavenumbers of the modal peaks in the spectrum at a particular depth. A method to invert for sound speed and density is also examined. Estimates of RB and RS based on synthetic data by the ratio method were very close to their predicted values, especially for higher frequencies and longer apertures. The pole method returned less precise estimates though with longer apertures, the estimates were better. Using experimental data, results of the pole method as well a geoacoustic inversion technique based on them were mixed. The ratio method was used to estimate RS based on the actual data and returned results close to the predicted phase of p.

High-resolution sonar systems are primarily used for ocean floor surveys and port security operations but produce images of limited resolution. In turn, a sonar-specific methodology is required to detect and classify underwater unexploded ordnance (UXO) using the low-resolution sonar data. After researching and reviewing numerous approaches the Multiple Aspect-Fixed Range Template Matching (MAFR-TM) algorithm was developed. The MAFR-TM algorithm is specifically designed to detect and classify a target of high characteristic impedance in an environment that contains similar shaped objects of low characteristic impedance. MAFR-TM is tested against a tank and field data set collected by the Sound Metrics Corp. DIDSON US300. This thesis document proves the MAFR-TM can detect, classify, orient, and locate a target in the sector-scan sonar images. This paper focuses on the MAFR-TM algorithm and its results.