Numerical modeling of low-frequency scattering from targets buried under rough seafloors

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2022-10, Vol.152 (4), p.A119-A119
• Main Authors: Sabatini, Roberto, Pailhas, Yan, Cristini, Paul, Xenaki, Angeliki
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/10.0015739

The acoustic backscattering of elastic bodies lying across the seafloor is a problem of great interest in many underwater applications, such as detecting and classifying buried objects. In this work, the backscattered wavefield of meter-sized targets is investigated numerically in the 1–50 kHz frequency band. The simulator solves the three-dimensional linearized equations of continuum mechanics. The computations are performed through a multi-GPU solver based on a multi-grid staggered finite-difference time-domain method (cf. Sabatini et al., 181st ASA Meeting, Seattle, Washington, 2021). The effects of the seafloor roughness and the target burial depth on the spectrum of the scattered field are more specifically analyzed. This study demonstrates the usefulness of direct numerical simulations of acoustic scattering from realistic elastic objects in complex underwater environments to improve the capabilities of sonar systems in detecting and identifying buried objects.