The Acoustic Characteristics Measurement and Evaluation on Underwater Complex Sound Sources

Abstract

Underwater complex sound sources have many types. The radiated power of these sound sources was obtained by measuring pressure in the ocean, but the measurement based on sound pressure in the ocean has some uncertainty. The sound pressure for one point or several points is not enough to characterize the sound sources. The acoustic measurement based on radiated power can reflect the acoustic characteristics of the sound sources exactly, especially the reverberation method can be used to measure the radiated power of underwater complex sound sources accurately in the reverberation pool and estimate the acoustic characteristics of the sound sources. First, the reverberation method measuring principle for underwater sound sources in the reverberation pool was described, the radiated power of a spherical standard sound source and an Underwater complex sound sources, such as underwater propeller was measured by reverberation method in the pool. Measurement and research results show that the difference between the radiated power of a standard spherical sound source measured by reverberation method and that measured in free field is not more than 1dB; The underwater complex sound source, such as underwater propeller can be measured by reverberation method accurately and the method can be also used to evaluate the radiated noise. The method can be applicable for investigating the acoustic characteristics of other underwater complex sound sources and also for the radiated sound power measurement and evaluation on underwater bodies under some condition.