Sound-waves--Scattering

The common approach for finding objects buried under the seabed is to use a single channel chirp reflection profiler. Reflection profiles lack information on target location, geometry and size. This thesis investigates methods for visualizing buried objects in noisy 3D acoustic data acquired by a small aperture scanning sonar. Various surface and volume rendering methods are tested with synthetic datasets containing fluid loaded spheres and with experimental data acquired with a 4-by-8 planar hydrophone array towed over buried objects with various aspects and size. The Maximum Intensity Projection is the best of the tested methods for real-time visualization of the data where a global overview of the targets is needed. A surface rendering technique such as the Marching Cubes is useful for offline measurement of the geometry and size of buried objects selected by the operator.

The purpose of the thesis is to investigate a multi-aspect reflection technique to generate 3D images of buried cylinders using the Buried Object Scanning Sonar (BOSS). Target imagery is constructed using a sequence of acoustic echoes generated as the sonar approaches and passes the buried target. However, for the sake of simplicity, the influence of the sediment on the scattering field will not be considered. This thesis investigates the multi-aspect technique by generating synthetic images of cylindrical targets to determine both the best method and the sonar parameters for reconstructing the shape of an elastic cylinder. Recommendations for deploying BOSS-252 and setting sonar parameters are provided based on quantitative measurements of the simulated images of cylindrical targets.

This thesis considers the effect of scattering on the sound radiation from rotating sources. The study is carried out using a combined numerical implementation of ray acoustics and the paraxial ray approximation. A detailed description of the theoretical background to these methods is presented, along with a description of their numerical implementation. Application of the method to classical problems is considered to prove the accuracy and the power of the approach. Application of the method to some typical problems involving scattering of noise from propellers and rotors is presented. It is found that for impulsive acoustic signatures the scattering effects are important especially in the sideline direction from a helicopter fuselage. The effects of sharp edges on the steady loading noise from tilt-rotor configurations indicates that there is a new mechanism for generating impulsive acoustic signatures caused by scattering by sharp edges of the fuselage. The acoustic signatures generated by this mechanism can appear very similar to other types of impulsive source generated by aerodynamic interactions on the blade and therefore must be important. This type of source can be eliminated if the fuselage has rounded edges. Flow effects on scattering problems have also been considered. It was shown that the flow causes a modification and displacement of the lobes of the directivity pattern and the shadow zone, which can be important at Mach numbers greater than 0.2. The main conclusion of this thesis is that scattering effects cannot be ignored for highly directional rotating sources next to rigid scattering objects as is always the case for propellers and helicopters rotors.