Transmission loss for the Beaufort Lens and the critica frequency for mode propagation during ICEX-18.

Complexities of acoustic propagation in ducts have long been known, e.g., shallow water environments and deep waters off Gibraltar.

Elastic parabolic equation and normal mode solutions for seismo-acoustic propagation in underwater environments with ice covers.

Sound propagation predictions for ice-covered ocean acoustic environments do not match observational data: received levels in nature are less than expected, suggesting that the effects of the ice are substantial. Effects due to elasticity in overlying ice can be significant enough that low-shear approximations, such as effective complex density treatments, may not be appropriate. Building on recent elastic seafloor modeling developments, a range-dependent parabolic equation solution that treats the ice as an elastic medium is presented.

Normal mode solutions for seismo-acoustic propagation resulting from shear and combined wave point sources.

Normal mode solutions to range-independent seismo-acoustic problems are benchmarked against elastic parabolic equation solutions and then used to benchmark the shear elastic parabolic equation self-starter [Frank, Odom, and Collis, J. Acoust. Soc.

Nonlinear acoustic pulse propagation in dispersive sediments using fractional loss operators.

The nonlinear progressive wave equation (NPE) is a time-domain formulation of the Euler fluid equations designed to model low-angle wave propagation using a wave-following computational domain. The wave-following frame of reference permits the simulation of long-range propagation and is useful in modeling blast wave effects in the ocean waveguide. Existing models do not take into account frequency-dependent sediment attenuation, a feature necessary for accurately describing sound propagation over, into, and out of the ocean sediment.

Elastic parabolic equation solutions for oceanic T-wave generation and propagation from deep seismic sources.

Oceanic T-waves are earthquake signals that originate when elastic waves interact with the fluid-elastic interface at the ocean bottom and are converted to acoustic waves in the ocean. These waves propagate long distances in the Sound Fixing and Ranging (SOFAR) channel and tend to be the largest observed arrivals from seismic events. Thus, an understanding of their generation is important for event detection, localization, and source-type discrimination.

Shock wave propagation along constant sloped ocean bottoms.

The nonlinear progressive wave equation (NPE) is a time-domain model used to calculate long-range shock propagation using a wave-following computational domain. Current models are capable of treating smoothly spatially varying medium properties, and fluid-fluid interfaces that align horizontally with a computational grid that can be handled by enforcing appropriate interface conditions. However, sloping interfaces that do not align with a horizontal grid present a computational challenge as application of interface conditions to vertical contacts is non-trivial.

Root finding in the complex plane for seismo-acoustic propagation scenarios with Green's function solutions.

A normal mode solution to the ocean acoustic problem of the Pekeris waveguide with an elastic bottom using a Green's function formulation for a compressional wave point source is considered. Analytic solutions to these types of waveguide propagation problems are strongly dependent on the eigenvalues of the problem; these eigenvalues represent horizontal wavenumbers, corresponding to propagating modes of energy. The eigenvalues arise as singularities in the inverse Hankel transform integral and are specified by roots to a characteristic equation.

A scaled mapping parabolic equation for sloping range-dependent environments.

Parabolic equation solutions use various techniques for approximating range-dependent interfaces. One is a mapping approach [M. D.

Seismo-acoustic propagation near thin and low-shear speed ocean bottom sediments using a massive elastic interface.

The seafloor is considered to be a thin surface layer overlying an elastic half space. In addition to layers of this type being thin, they may also have shear wave speeds that can be small (order 100 m/s). Both the thin and low-shear properties, viewed as small parameters, can cause mathematical and numerical singularities to arise.

Two parabolic equations for propagation in layered poro-elastic media.

Parabolic equation methods for fluid and elastic media are extended to layered poro-elastic media, including some shallow-water sediments. A previous parabolic equation solution for one model of range-independent poro-elastic media [Collins et al., J.

Characteristics of sound propagation in shallow water over an elastic seabed with a thin cap-rock layer.

Measurements of low-frequency sound propagation over the areas of the Australian continental shelf, where the bottom sediments consist primarily of calcarenite, have revealed that acoustic transmission losses are generally much higher than those observed over other continental shelves and remain relatively low only in a few narrow frequency bands. This paper considers this phenomenon and provides a physical interpretation in terms of normal modes in shallow water over a layered elastic seabed with a shear wave speed comparable to but lower than the water-column sound speed. A theoretical analysis and numerical modeling show that, in such environments, low attenuation of underwater sound is expected only in narrow frequency bands just above the modal critical frequencies which in turn are governed primarily by the water depth and compressional wave speed in the seabed.

Computationally efficient parabolic equation solutions to seismo-acoustic problems involving thin or low-shear elastic layers.

Shallow-water environments typically include sediments containing thin or low-shear layers. Numerical treatments of these types of layers require finer depth grid spacing than is needed elsewhere in the domain. Thin layers require finer grids to fully sample effects due to elasticity within the layer.

Elastic parabolic equation solutions for underwater acoustic problems using seismic sources.

Several problems of current interest involve elastic bottom range-dependent ocean environments with buried or earthquake-type sources, specifically oceanic T-wave propagation studies and interface wave related analyses. Additionally, observed deep shadow-zone arrivals are not predicted by ray theoretic methods, and attempts to model them with fluid-bottom parabolic equation solutions suggest that it may be necessary to account for elastic bottom interactions. In order to study energy conversion between elastic and acoustic waves, current elastic parabolic equation solutions must be modified to allow for seismic starting fields for underwater acoustic propagation environments.

A three-dimensional parabolic equation model of sound propagation using higher-order operator splitting and Padé approximants.

An alternating direction implicit (ADI) three-dimensional fluid parabolic equation solution method with enhanced accuracy is presented. The method uses a square-root Helmholtz operator splitting algorithm that retains cross-multiplied operator terms that have been previously neglected. With these higher-order cross terms, the valid angular range of the parabolic equation solution is improved.

Elastic Pekeris waveguide normal mode solution comparisons against laboratory data.

Following the derivation presented by Press and Ewing [Geophysics 15, 426-446 (1950)], a normal mode solution for the Pekeris waveguide problem with an elastic bottom is outlined. The analytic solution is benchmarked against data collected in an experiment performed at the Naval Research Laboratory [Collis et al., J.

Seismo-acoustic ray model benchmarking against experimental tank data.

Acoustic predictions of the recently developed traceo ray model, which accounts for bottom shear properties, are benchmarked against tank experimental data from the EPEE-1 and EPEE-2 (Elastic Parabolic Equation Experiment) experiments. Both experiments are representative of signal propagation in a Pekeris-like shallow-water waveguide over a non-flat isotropic elastic bottom, where significant interaction of the signal with the bottom can be expected. The benchmarks show, in particular, that the ray model can be as accurate as a parabolic approximation model benchmarked in similar conditions.

Horizontal coherence of low-frequency fixed-path sound in a continental shelf region with internal-wave activity.

Sound at 85 to 450 Hz propagating in approximately 80-m depth water from fixed sources to a joint horizontal/vertical line array (HLA/VLA) is analyzed. The data are from a continental shelf area east of Delaware Bay (USA) populated with tidally generated long- and short-wavelength internal waves. Sound paths are 19 km in the along-shore (along internal-wave crest) direction and 30 km in the cross-shore direction.

Experimental testing of the variable rotated elastic parabolic equation.

A series of laboratory experiments was conducted to obtain high-quality data for acoustic propagation in shallow water waveguides with sloping elastic bottoms. Accurate modeling of transmission loss in these waveguides can be performed with the variable rotated parabolic equation method. Results from an earlier experiment with a flat or sloped slab of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) demonstrated the necessity of accounting for elasticity in the bottom and the ability of the model to produce benchmark-quality agreement with experimental data [J.

Observed limiting cases of horizontal field coherence and array performance in a time-varying internal wavefield.

Using a moored source and horizontal/vertical line array combination, horizontal coherence properties of high signal to noise ratio (> or =20 dB) 100-1600 Hz signals have been measured. Internal waves in the area of the measurement created moving episodic sound-speed anomaly structures, influencing coherence length. Measured horizontal coherence scales for 100 Hz ranged from 5 to 20 acoustic wavelengths, and were inversely related to the sound-speed anomaly strength.

Parabolic equation solution of seismo-acoustics problems involving variations in bathymetry and sediment thickness.

Recent improvements in the parabolic equation method are combined to extend this approach to a larger class of seismo-acoustics problems. The variable rotated parabolic equation [J. Acoust.

Comparison of simulations and data from a seismo-acoustic tank experiment.

A tank experiment was carried out to investigate underwater sound propagation over an elastic bottom in flat and sloping configurations. The purpose of the experiment was to evaluate range-dependent propagation models with high-quality experimental data. The sea floor was modeled as an elastic medium by a polyvinyl chloride slab.