October 5–9, 2009

  Penn State » Outreach » Underwater Acoustics » Course Content

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Course Content

Introduction and Special Topics

1. Basic Acoustic and Sonar Concepts (two parts): Review of basic vibration theory, basic acoustic theory, and the physics of sound propagation, reflection, and absorption phenomena; active and passive sonar equations; discussion of the terms in the sonar equation. (Kyle Becker and D. L. Bradley)
2. Transducer and Array Concepts: Principles of transduction and sonar transducer design; electromechanical analog circuits; frequency response characteristics; coupling coefficient; efficiency; directivity characteristics of receivers and arrays; transducer measurement techniques; discussion of calibration facilities. (T. Montgomery)
3. Active Target Acoustics: Understanding the echo formation process is central to the design and operation of effective active sonar systems. This session explores the principal scattering mechanisms and how they encode information in the echo that can be exploited for detection, classification, and tracking. Discussion of active sonar as a scattering problem, target strength definition and measurement, scattering from simple and complex shapes, elastic effects, and simulation modeling techniques. (F. R. Menotti)
4. Sound Propagation Measurements and Instrumentation: Description of at-sea measurement techniques; the instrumentation and oceanographic data required for at-sea measurements; examples of deep- and shallow-water experiments; high- and low-frequency considerations. (R. L. Culver)
5. Shallow-Water Acoustics: Propagation, scattering, and ambient noise in the shallow-water environment; the effects of shallow water on sonar pulses; special characteristics of shallow-water regions; special considerations for acoustic system design in shallow water; selected experimental results and comparison to theory. (A. P. Lyons)
6. Applied Underwater Acoustics: Introduction to the application of acoustics in the study of the undersea environment and an overview of the concepts and systems used for making underwater measurements. Specific topics include the use of acoustics as a tool in oceanographic instrumentation, the use of acoustics in the study of ocean processes, and current issues in ocean acoustics research. (A. P. Lyons)
7. Demonstrations of Acoustic Propagation: Live demonstrations of transducer characteristics; array performance; transmission loss; reflection from smooth and rough surfaces; propagation in a waveguide; pulse distortion by dispersion; scattering from a target; parametric beamforming. (C. Barber)

Sonar Signal Processing

8. Sonar Signal Processing (two parts): Overview of the principles of processing underwater acoustic signals; topics include basic signal processing concepts, such as Fourier transforms, analytic signals, and temporal and spatial filtering; statistical signal processing concepts, such as hypothesis testing and detection of signals in noise; passive and active sonar design and performance analysis concepts, such as the beamformer directivity index and receiver operating characteristics; and theory and applications. (M. A. Mazur)
9. Sonar Implementation Concepts: Introduction to implementation techniques for active and passive sonars. Approach starts from a typical modern sonar system block diagram. Specific topics include interface to environment, signal representation, active and passive sonar requirements, and beamformer and receiver design concepts. (M. A. Mazur)
10. Broadband Acoustics and Processing: For the low Doppler shallow-water environment, broadband acoustics offer advantages over conventional narrowband techniques. This session will focus on the advantages of broadband techniques applied to the reverberation-limited detection/classification problem. It will emphasize experimental results and comparison with theory. (J. Reeves)
11. Acoustics Imaging—Theory and Applications: Introduction of the basic formation of acoustic imaging systems, in two parts: systems analysis and electronics systems architecture. Topics covered are transmitter design; digital signal processing techniques; digital beamforming; digital beamforming architectures; image formation, manipulation, and display. (R. L. Tutwiler)

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