Design Of An Underwater Acoustic Channel Simulation Software Based On Gaussian Beam Method

Since the research and development cycle of underwater acoustic system is long, theinvestment is big and the experiment is complex, it has became a kind of standard workingmethod and an important technical means to estimate acoustic environment’s impact onsystem performance by using computers to simulated calculation and numerical simulation.Ray acoustics theory is widely used because its clear physical pictures, its fast calculation, itswide range of application and many other advantages. Three-dimensional ray acousticsmethod can meet the demand of the increasing distance of the acoustics equipments and thenew method to process signal. Extending the ray acoustics theory to three-dimensional tosimulate the underwater acoustic channel is of great significance on engineering.Underwater acoustic channel simulation based on Gaussian beam method and ray theorywas studied in this paper. The ray theory and Gaussian beam method was introduced in thefirst place. The ray equation and the Gaussian beam was derived in detail and the regularityof Gaussian beam reflection and transmission on interface was studied. An approach to theGaussian beam tracing method is proposed in this paper. This Approach is suitable forthree-dimensional calculation. An underwater acoustic channel simulation software using thisapproach was designed in this paper.The underwater acoustic channel simulation software designed in this paper can producea variety of useful outputs including the ray coordinates, eigenrays, transmission loss, arrivals,and received time-series by doing two-dimensional or three-dimensional calculationaccording to the files which give the environment conditions. The result can be outputtedgraphically. The software’s graphical user interface is intuitive and is easy to operate. Theprocess structure and numerical methods were described in detail and the result was given inthis paper. By comparison with the ray tracing program BELLHOP, it can be consideredcorrect and credible to simulate the underwater acoustic channel using this software.