A simulation method on target strength and circular SAS imaging of X-rudder UUV including multiple acoustic scattering

Abstract

Target strength (TS) and circular synthetic aperture sonar (CSAS) images provide essential information for active acoustic detection and recognition of non-cooperative unmanned undersea vehicles (UUVs), which pose a significant threat to underwater preset facilities. To access them, we propose an iterative physical acoustics (IPA)-based method to simulate the multiple acoustic scattered fields on rigid surfaces in high-frequency cases. It uses the Helmholtz integral equation with an appropriate Green's function in terms of the Neumann series, and then incorporates the ideas of triangulation and iteration into a numerical implementation. Then two approximate analytic formulae with precise physical meanings are derived to predict the TS and CSAS images of concave targets, respectively. There are no restrictions on the surface's curvature and the order of multiple scattering. The method is validated against the finite element method (FEM) for acoustic scattering from a sphere segment and against an experiment involving an X-rudder UUV's stern. On this basis, we simulate and analyze the TS and CSAS images of an X-rudder UUV. In addition, the influence of the angle of adjacent rudders on the multiple scattering characteristics is discussed. Results show that this method can potentially predict accurate UUV features, especially the multiple scattered features.