Toward ocean attenuation tomography: Determining acoustic volume attenuation coefficients in seawater using eigenray amplitudes.

A deep-water experiment in the Pacific made in situ measurements of the volume attenuation coefficients of sea water in the mid-frequency range. The frequency, temperature, salinity, pH, and pressure dependent seawater attenuation coefficients were determined using a vertical line array that received and identified over 2000 unique paths from 1200 mid-frequency 3-9 kHz LFM source transmissions at a convergence zone range and depth up to 400 m. The results show no change in attenuation coefficients in this band compared to estimates from 30-year-old models previously determined from a combination of long-range ocean acoustic and laboratory experiments. The inversion also explores the feasibility of ocean acoustic attenuation tomography to further separate the depth-dependent chemical components responsible for the total attenuation loss through by isolating a group of deep-water refracting acoustic paths.

Application of damage detection methods using passive reconstruction of impulse response functions.

In structural health monitoring (SHM), using only the existing noise has long been an attractive goal. The advances in understanding cross-correlations in ambient noise in the past decade, as well as new understanding in damage indication and other advanced signal processing methods, have continued to drive new research into passive SHM systems. Because passive systems take advantage of the existing noise mechanisms in a structure, offshore wind turbines are a particularly attractive application due to the noise created from the various aerodynamic and wave loading conditions. Two damage detection methods using a passively reconstructed impulse response function, or Green's function, are presented. Damage detection is first studied using the reciprocity of the impulse response functions, where damage introduces new nonlinearities that break down the similarity in the causal and anticausal wave components. Damage detection and localization are then studied using a matched-field processing technique that aims to spatially locate sources that identify a change in the structure. Results from experiments conducted on an aluminium plate and wind turbine blade with simulated damage are also presented.