In situ estimation of sediment sound speed and critical angle

Understanding the basic physics of sound penetration into ocean sediments is essential for the design of sonar systems that can detect, localize, classify, and identify buried objects. In this regard the sound speed of the sediment is a crucial parameter as the ratio of sound speed at the water-sediment interface determines the critical angle. Sediment sound speed is typically measured from core samples using high frequency (100's of kHz) pulsed travel time measurements. Earlier experimental work on subcritical penetration into sandy sediments has suggested that the effective sound speed in the 2-20 kHz range is significantly lower than the core measurement results. Simulations using Biot theory for propagation in porous media confirmed that sandy sediments may be highly dispersive in the range 1-100 kHz for the type of sand in which the experiments were performed. Here it is shown that a direct and robust estimate of the critical angle, and therefore the sediment sound speed, at the lower frequencies can be achieved by analyzing the grazing angle dependence of the phase delays observed on a buried array. A parametric source with secondary frequencies in the 2-16 kHz range was directed toward a sandy bottom similar to the one investigated in the earlier study. An array of 14 hydrophones was used to measure penetrated field. The critical angle was estimated by analyzing the variations of signal arrival times versus frequency, burial depth, and grazing angle. Matching the results with classical transmission theory yielded a sound speed estimate in the sand of 1626 m/s in the frequency range 2-5 kHz, again significantly lower the 1720 m/s estimated from the cores at 200 kHz. However, as described here, this dispersion is consistent with the predictions of the Biot theory for this type of sand.