Broad Band Acoustic Modeling of Reverberation for Torpedo Simulators

Current torpedo active search and homing performance in shallow littoral regions can be severely degraded by reverberation. Meaningful testing and evaluation of performance in such reverberant environments is best done by high fidelity simulation. This is not only a question of the high cost of in-water testing. Such simulations can provide situations and environments that can be easily changed, a capability that would be essentially impossible for in-water testing. This proposal describes a study with the goal of providing a realistic model of reverberation for torpedo simulators. The aim is to develop a processor that has the potential of providing time series that faithfully and accurately represent the outputs of the individual hydrophones for a multi-beam torpedo sonar receiver. The input to this processor will be a simulation of the acoustic field at the receiver array, as provided by a propagation model such as that in the NUWC WAF (Weapon Analysis Facility). Furthermore, the processor will not be model dependent, in the sense that new and upgraded propagation models will be able to be implemented without overreaching or exceeding the capabilities of the processor.