Bistatic, above-critical angle scattering measurements of fully buried unexploded ordnance (UXO) and clutter

Laboratory grade bistatic scattering measurements are conducted in order to examine the acoustic response of realistic fully buried unexploded ordnance (UXO) from above-critical angle insonification, between 2 and 40 kHz. A 127 mm diameter rocket UXO, a 155 mm diameter artillery shell, a natural rock of approximately the same size, and a cinder block are fully buried in water-saturated medium grained sand (mean grain diameter, 240 μm) at depths of 10 cm below the water-sediment interface. A two-dimensional array of bistatic scattering measurements is generated synthetically by scanning a single hydrophone in steps of 3 cm over a 1 m × 1 m patch directly above the targets at a height of 20 cm above the water-sediment interface. Three-dimensional volumetric acoustic images generated from the return waveforms reveal scattering components attributed to geometric and elastic scattering, as well as multiple-scattering interactions of returns between the sediment-water interface and the buried objects. The far-field target strength of the objects is estimated through extrapolation of the angular spectrum. Agreement is found between experimental data and simulated data generated from a finite-element-based, three-dimensional time-harmonic model (2-25 kHz). Separation of the measured UXO from the clutter objects is demonstrated through exploitation of structural-acoustics-based features.