Sound amplitude fluctuations due to a temperature microstructure

Abstract

The experiments reported in this paper were carried out in a water tank in which a random medium was generated by convective mixing from an array of heaters. An approximate thermodynamic model of the medium was derived. Temperature measurements were made which showed that the temperature microstructure created in this way could be considered as a passive additive of turbulence. Furthermore, it was possible to characterize the random refractive index in terms of a spectral distribution by using an adapted version of a spectrum proposed by Medwin for the upper ocean. By using the adapted Medwin model and the single-scatter theoretical results of Tatarski, theoretical estimates were obtained of the fluctuations of an acoustic signal propagating in this particular medium. Experiments were carried out to measure acoustic signal amplitude fluctuations at frequencies of 9 MHz and 1 MHz. The empirical results were in agreement with the theoretical estimates. Measurements are also reported for the spatial correlation functions of the acoustic signal amplitude fluctuations. The results are discussed in the light of currently available theoretical results.