ISSN 1063-7710, Acoustical Physics, 2009, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 7680. Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2009.

Original Russian Text I.B. Esipov, O.E. Popov, V.A. Voronin, S.P. Tarasov, 2009, published in Akusticheski Zhurnal, 2009, Vol. 55, No. 1, pp. 5661.

OCEAN ACOUSTICS
AND UNDERWATER SOUND

Dispersion of the Signal of a Parametric Array in Shallow Water

I. B. Esipova, O. E. Popova, V. A. Voroninb, and S. P. Tarasovb
a

Andreev Acoustics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Shvernika 4, Moscow, 117036 Russia
e-mail: ibesipov@akin.ru
b Taganrog Technological Institute, Southern Federal University, Taganrog, Russia
Received April 21, 2008

AbstractResults of an experimental study of shallow-water propagation are presented for a broadband

acoustic signal produced by a parametric array. The narrow-beam character of the signal provides single-mode
excitation of the oceanic waveguide. The possibility of compression of the broadband signal in the course of its
propagation in shallow water is discussed for the case of a specially adjusted frequency modulation. The use of
waveguide dispersion leads to an increase in the efficiency of parametric radiation in shallow water.
PACS numbers: 43.25.Lj
DOI: 10.1134/S1063771009010084

pendent of the propagation of high-frequency pumping,

which rapidly decays. Owing to the nonresonance generation of the low-frequency signal, a parametric array
provides the emission of probing signals in a broad frequency band (exceeding two octaves).
A sea waveguide possesses a frequency dispersion
of the propagation velocity of acoustic signals. The
value of the dispersion depends on the vertical sound
velocity profile and on the waveguide thickness [9].
The frequency dispersion leads to either the decay of
short broadband pulses, which travel relatively long
distances, or the concentration of acoustic signal
energy within a short time interval when the frequency
modulation of the signal corresponds to the dispersion
conditions in the medium. In the latter case, one should
consider focusing of the acoustic signal or its compression in time [10]. In the present paper, we study the possibility of focusing in time (or compression) for a
broadband acoustic signal propagating in a shallowwater sea waveguide. In the experiment, the acoustic
signal was excited by a narrow-beam parametric array.

INTRODUCTION
At present, methods that increase the efficiency of
echo sounding in the ocean, especially in its shallowwater regions, are attracting considerable attention.
One of the problems related to this subject is focusing
of acoustic radiation in an oceanic waveguide [1, 2]. As
a rule, this problem is solved with the use of phase conjugation [35]. It is commonly believed that spatial
focusing of acoustic radiation in the bulk of the
waveguide makes it possible to reduce the scattering
from its boundaries and, hence, to increase the signalto-reverberation ratio. At the same time, methods exist
that allow one to extend the principles of spatial signal
processing to the frequency domain [6, 7]. In shallow
water, these methods can be implemented using singlemode excitation of the oceanic waveguide in a broad
frequency band. A parametric acoustic array, which is
capable of producing highly directional radiation in a
broad frequency band [8], is one possible acoustic
instrument that can serve for this purpose.
The characteristic feature of such a hydroacoustic
array, whose operation is based on the principles of
nonlinear acoustics, is an extremely narrow directional
pattern (its characteristic width is 13) for low-frequency acoustic signals. The beam width of a parametric array is almost constant in a broad frequency band,
while sidelobes are absent. Therefore, a parametric
array may provide a selective excitation of modes of a
broadband acoustic signal in the oceanic waveguide.
The probing signal is formed in the sea medium, which
is excited by an intense high-frequency amplitudemodulated acoustic pumping. As a result, an end-fire
array is formed in the waveguide, and this array generates a narrow beam of acoustic radiation at the modulation frequency. The propagation of such a low-frequency signal generated in a parametric way is inde-

EXPERIMENT
Experimental studies were performed in summer in
the Taganrog Gulf of the Sea of Azov with the use of
two small ships. One of the ships carried a transmitting
array, and the other, a receiving array. The transmitting
array was mounted on a rotator, which was fixed on
board the ship, and was able to scan the water area in
the horizontal plane from 90 to +90 with a narrow
beam of parametric radiation. In the course of transmission, the ship was anchored. The array was positioned
at a depth of 1.51.7 m, and the axis of radiation was
horizontal. The sea depth at the experimental site was
2.53 m. The parametric array was made in the form of
a mosaic of radiating elements, half of which transmit76

DISPERSION OF THE SIGNAL OF A PARAMETRIC ARRAY IN SHALLOW WATER

77

signal was transmitted by recording the directional pattern while the transmitting array slowly rotated in the
horizontal plane. A sequence of pulses was transmitted.
The duration of a single pulse was 2 ms, and the interval between pulses was about 300 ms. Signals were
simultaneously received from all of the individual
hydrophones of the vertical array. The measurements
were carried out for transmitterreceiver distances of
1 to 5.6 km.

Depth, m
0
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
2.5
1498.3

1498.5

1498.7

1498.9
1499.1
Velocity of sound, m/s

Fig. 1. Sound velocity profile in the waveguide. Different

symbols correspond to measurements separated by onehour intervals.

ted a high-frequency pumping signal at one frequency,

and the other half transmitted a signal at another frequency slightly different from the first. The average
radiation frequency (pumping frequency) was 150 kHz.
The difference frequency or the transmission frequency
was within 520 kHz. The electric power of the array
amplifier was 1 kW for each of the pumping frequencies. The receiving array was made in the form of a vertical chain of eight hydrophones, which were spaced at
0.25 m and were mounted on a metal rod. The rod,
being part of a rigid structure, was positioned at the bottom in such a way that the chain of hydrophones covered the whole waveguide. The signal from the receiving elements of the array was sent through a cable to the
receiving ship, where it was digitized and stored for
subsequent processing. The vertical distribution of
sound velocity in the waveguide was governed by solar
heating of its upper part during the daytime (Fig. 1). In
view of the directionality of the parametric array, the
1000

1500
(a)

500
1

100

500

100

1000

200

1500

(c)

200

500

300
(b)

1000

500

1000

EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
We studied frequencytime characteristics of pulse
propagation for pulses with a duration of 2 ms and a
carrier frequency linearly modulated within 715 kHz.
The signal frequency sweep was in the direction from
low to high frequencies, which corresponded to normal
waveguide dispersion, i.e., to the case where the group
velocity of signal propagation increases with frequency. Figure 2 shows oscillograms of acoustic pulses
received at different distances, which demonstrate the
variation in the pulse shape as it propagates in the
waveguide. The pulse shape allows us to distinguish a
constant-amplitude precursor and the chirped signal
itself. By applying an additional frequencytime analysis, we found that the spectrum of the precursor lies
within 1416 kHz, which corresponds to the second
harmonic of the transmitted signal (Fig. 3).
Figure 4 shows the signal records obtained from the
vertical chain of hydrophones at a distance of 1000 m
from the source. One can see that the major part of the
energy is concentrated in the middle of the waveguide.
A detailed analysis shows that the signals received by
different hydrophones of the receiving array are in
phase throughout the whole waveguide depth, which
testifies to the predominance of single-mode propagation of the signal. Thus, under the given experimental
conditions, the parametric array excited the first mode
of the waveguide. Figure 5 compares experimental and
calculated data for the normalized vertical distribution
of the acoustic field in the waveguide. Experimental
data correspond to the pulse amplitude measured by the

2
Time, ms

300

Fig. 2. Oscillograms of the chirped signal propagating in the shallow-water waveguide: a distance of (a) 1, (b) 2.5, and (c) 3.8 km;
a signal amplitude of (a) 51, (b) 87, and (c) 22 Pa.
ACOUSTICAL PHYSICS

Vol. 55

No. 1

2009

ESIPOV et al.

Frequency, Hz

78
1.9

120

1.7

110

1.5

100

1.3
90

1.1
0.9

80

0.7

70

0.5
0

2
Time, s

Fig. 3. Frequencytime spectrum of the parametric signal.

A distance of 466 m.

vertical chain of hydrophones at a frequency of 15 kHz

(a frequency band of 500 Hz). The eigenfunction of the
first mode is calculated for the measured sound velocity profile and for the bottom in the form of a liquid
half-space with the following parameters: a density of
1800 kg/m3 and a sound propagation velocity of 1520 m/s.
The velocity of sound propagation in water was taken
to be 1499 m/s. The frequency dependence of the signal

propagation velocity in the homogeneous shallowwater waveguide was calculated with allowance for the
conditions at the waveguide boundaries. The upper
boundary of the waveguide was free, and therefore the
sound pressure at this boundary was zero. The character
of the distribution of acoustic field and the fact that it is
almost independent of distance also testify to the single-mode nature of signal propagation.
ANALYSIS OF THE RESULTS
In the case under study, the propagation conditions
in the shallow-water waveguide corresponded to normal waveguide dispersion, where the group velocity of
signal propagation increases with frequency. Hence, to
achieve compression of a broadband signal in the
course of its propagation in the waveguide, it is necessary to provide an increase in frequency within the time
of signal radiation. This kind of modulation was used in
our experiments.
Calculation of the group velocity dispersion allows
us to estimate variations in the delays of different frequency components of the signal in the course of its
propagation in the waveguide. Figure 6 represents the
frequency dependence of such a delay for different distances traveled by the signal. One can see that the slope
of the dispersion curve for the chirped signal agrees

0.545
0.780

Reception depth, m

1.015
1.250
1.485
1.720
1.955
2.190

0.015

0.020

0.025

0.030

0.035

Fig. 4. Signals at the vertical chain of hydrophones. A distance of 1000 m. The frequency is 15 kHz, and the pulse duration is 2 ms.
ACOUSTICAL PHYSICS

Vol. 55

No. 1

2009

DISPERSION OF THE SIGNAL OF A PARAMETRIC ARRAY IN SHALLOW WATER

79

Time, ms

Depth, m
0

0
2

0.5

0.4

1.0

0.8
2

1.5

1.2

2.0

1.6

2.5

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

2.0
0.7

Fig. 5. (1) Normalized distribution of the signal level

throughout the vertical section of the waveguide and (2) the
calculated eigenfunction of the first mode.

well with the results of frequencytime processing for

the signal measured at a distance of 466 m. As the distance increases, the frequencytime relations in the signal vary. The delay of low-frequency components
increases, which leads to a decrease in the difference
between the arrival times of the beginning and end of
the parametric signal, i.e., to a decrease in its duration.
Analysis shows that the subsequent transformation of
the delays in the arrivals of different frequency components occurs in such a way that the arrival times of lowfrequency and high-frequency components may coincide at a distance of about 6 km for the conditions of the
given experiment. From the experiment, it follows that,
to achieve a complete synchronism of arrival times for
all the frequency components of the signal, a special
type of frequency modulation is necessary, which
should correspond to the characteristic features of dispersion in the waveguide. Since the dispersion of the signal propagation velocity nonlinearly depends on frequency, the frequency modulation should also be nonlinear to obtain the maximum compression of the signal.
The limiting signal compression is determined by
the effective frequency band of its spectrum f: =
(f )1. On the other hand, the duration of the pulse
under study T under the condition of its complete compression at a distance L is determined by the frequency
dispersion c/f of the propagation velocity c: T =
c/f
- f.
L ------------2
c
Thus, in the case of the signal compression due to
waveguide dispersion, the signal intensity may increase
c/f 2
- f . Hence, the effect
by a factor of T/: T/ = L ------------2
c
of an increase in intensity is proportional to the distance
traveled by the signal, the value of the waveguide disACOUSTICAL PHYSICS

Vol. 55

No. 1

2009

0.8

0.9

1.0

1.1

1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5

Frequency, 104 Hz

Fig. 6. Variation of the delays in the arrival times of signal

frequency components with distance traveled by the signal:
calculation and experimental results. (1) The characteristic
of the transmitted chirped signal and the experimental values for a distance of 466 m. (2) Experimental values for a
distance of 2500 m. (3) Experimental data for a distance of
3767 m and the corresponding calculation for the conditions
corresponding to Fig. 5.

persion, and the square of the signal frequency band. At

the same time, an increase occurs in the ratio between
the signal and the noise that is accumulated in the
recording equipment during the signal reception time .
Note that the group velocity of signal propagation in
the waveguide is determined by the waveguide parameters. In particular, for a Pekeris waveguide with a
depth-independent constant sound velocity c0, the frequency dependence of the signal propagation velocity
2 2

1/2

c0 l
is determined by the relation c = c0 1 ----------------2
,
( 2 fH )
where H is the vertical scale of the waveguide and l is
the mode index. This yields the limiting estimate for the
frequency dispersion of sound velocity in the
waveguide: c/f f 2. In the case of signal radiation
with a constant relative frequency band f/f = const, the
relative compression of the signal T/ proves to increase
with increasing distance of signal propagation L. Therefore, the relative increase in the intensity of a broadband signal should be most pronounced in the case of
long-range propagation in the waveguide.
CONCLUSIONS
The experiments described above demonstrated the
possibility of compression for broadband acoustic
pulses under the effect of waveguide dispersion in the
course of their propagation in shallow water. The
broadband signals were transmitted by a parametric

80

ESIPOV et al.

array. Owing to its directionality and nonresonance

manner of signal generation, a parametric array provides a single-mode excitation of the waveguide in a
broad frequency band. In this case, the relative width of
the signal frequency band may reach or even exceed
one octave.
The chirped signal used in our experiments did not
completely correspond to the character of sound velocity dispersion in the waveguide that was observed
experimentally. Therefore, compensation of the propagation times of different signal frequency components
was found to be possible only in a limited frequency
interval. This provided a more than fourfold signal
compression at a distance of 3.7 km. To achieve full
synchronism for the arrivals of all the frequency components of the signal, a special type of frequency modulation is required, which should correspond to the features of sound velocity dispersion in the waveguide.
Analysis showed that the signal compression due to
waveguide dispersion is proportional to the distance
traveled by the signal at fixed values of the dispersion
and the relative width of the signal frequency band.
Compression of the signal leads to an increase in its
intensity. Hence, when the frequency characteristics of
the signal are matched to the features of waveguide dispersion along the propagation path, the increase in the
signal intensity may exactly compensate the decrease in
the signal intensity with distance in the case of a cylindrical character of mode propagation in a stratified
waveguide. This conclusion is only of qualitative significance, because it follows from the analysis of signal
propagation in an ideal homogeneous lossless
waveguide.
Compression of signals is most efficient for signals
with a broad frequency band, and this can be implemented in the case of long-range propagation. Therefore, a parametric array, which is capable of a selective
excitation of modes in the underwater waveguide in

a broad frequency band, seems to be the most effective

instrument for studying the compression of acoustic
signals in oceanic waveguides.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research and the ISTC center (project
no. 3770).
REFERENCES
1. V. M. Kuzkin and S. A. Pereselkov, Akust. Zh. 52, 693
(2006) [Acoust. Phys. 52, 598 (2006)].
2. V. A. Grigorev and V. M. Kuzkin, Akust. Zh. 51, 352
(2005) [Acoust. Phys. 51, 292 (2005)].
3. S. Kim, W. A. Kuperman, W. S. Hodgkiss, et al.,
J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 115, 1525 (2004).
4. V. A. Zverev, Akust. Zh. 50, 792 (2004) [Acoust. Phys.
50, 685 (2004)].
5. W. A. Kuperman et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 25
(1998).
6. M. I. Charnotski, I. M. Fuks, K. A. Naugolnykh, et al.,
Akust. Zh. 52, 269 (2006) [Acoust. Phys. 52, 222 (2006)].
7. I. Esipov, K. Naugolnykh, I. Fuks, et al., in Proceedings
of European Conference on Underwater Acoustics,
ECUA-2006, Cavoeiro, Portugal, 2006.
8. B. K. Novikov and V. I. Timoshenko, Parametric Arrays
in Underwater Detection and Ranging (Sudostroenie,
Leningrad, 1990) [in Russian].
9. L. M. Brekhovskikh and Yu. P. Lysanov, Fundamentals
of Ocean Acoustics (Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 1982;
Springer-Verlag, New York, 1991).
10. A. E. Ponomarev, S. I. Bulatnitski, and O. A. Sapozhnikov, Akust. Zh. 53, 157 (2007) [Acoust. Phys. 53, 127
(2007)].

Translated by E. Golyamina

ACOUSTICAL PHYSICS

Vol. 55

No. 1

2009