Research: Predictions of Acoustic Uncertainty

Sponsor: Office of Naval Research
The US Navy uses acoustic field calculations and modern sonar systems to produce tactical decision aids and perform threat analyses. However, bathymetric contours, characteristics of the ocean floor, and acoustic properties of the water column are imperfectly known at best. Plus, the depths of receiver(s) and remote sources of interest may vary. Thus, underwater acoustic field calculations are uncertain because of imperfect knowledge of source-receiver geometry and the environment. The goal of this project is to predict — in real time — the uncertainty in acoustic field calculations that results from such geometrical and environmental uncertainties.

References:
James & Dowling, JASA 118, 2802-2810 [2005].
James & Dowling, JASA 124, 1465-1476 [2008].
James & Dowling, JASA 129, 589-592 [2011].
Patterson & Dowling, JUA 68, 194-213 [2018]

Current Research Projects
1. Predictions of Acoustic Uncertainty
2. Blind Deconvolution in Reverberant Environments
3. Nonlinear Techniques for Remote Sensing
4. Acoustic Diagnostics for Reverberant Environments

Recent Research Projects
5. Acoustic Coherent Backscatter Enhancement
6. Simulations of Washing Machine Processes
7. Turbulent Boundary Layers At High Reynolds Number
8. Multi-dimensional Measurements of Velocity during Thermoplastic Injection Molding
9. Beyond Line-of-sight Acoustic Sensing
10. Measurements of Oil-film Thickness