Flow Noise Spectrum Analysis for Vertical Line Array During Descent in Deep Water

Abstract

Reliable acoustic path (RAP) is a direct path used for sound propagation between a shallow source and a deep receiver in deep water. The RAP environment can provide a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) environment for source localization, so it has been widely studied for underwater passive detection. Active detection can be used for source localization during the descent of a vertical line array (VLA). However, the flow noise originating from the pressure fluctuations in the turbulent boundary layer (TBL) during the descent degrades the detection performance of the VLA. This paper presents a calculation of the response of the cylindrical hydrophones to axisymmetric turbulent wall pressure and the physical properties of flow noise. The flow noise was calculated using the wavenumber-frequency spectrum analysis method, which is based on Carpenter’s TBL pressure spectrum. The results show that the energy of the flow noise is concentrated mainly in low frequencies and it increases and spreads toward high frequencies with increasing stream velocity. The conclusions have been verified with experimental data. In addition, the noise correlation between two hydrophones will undergo oscillatory decay as the hydrophone spacing increases. The above findings will be beneficial for signal processing of an active sonar array.