First arrival cycle-based calculation methods of in situ sound speed and attenuation in sediments

Abstract

ABSTRACTThe acoustic properties of seafloor sediments are of great importance in geoacoustic modeling, detecting, and oceanic engineering. The methods based on the first arrival cycle are investigated to calculate sound speed and attenuation of sediment more precisely in in situ measurements. The comparison of different data analysis methods based on the first arrival cycle approach for in situ measurement results in the following conclusions: (1) the calculated methods can help find the effective cycles and reduce the errors in calculating sound speed and attenuation; (2) using this approach, the point judgment method-based data analysis has the same effectiveness as the cross-correlation method-based data analysis in calculating group sound speed and has the same effectiveness in calculating attenuation in the time domain as the spectrum analysis method-based data analysis has in calculating attenuation in frequency domain; and (3) measurement in water can help not only calibrate the transmitting distance but also can calculate the time delay for the sound speed and the attenuation loss in the transmitting process. Finally, theoretical calculation was used to calculate the measured results, indicating a good agreement, which supports that first arrival cycle-based calculated methods can be used to analyze the measured data and the effective density fluid model can be used to analyze more acoustic properties and invert several physical properties in this experiment.