Design and simulation of acoustic vortex wave arrays for long-range underwater communication

The formation and propagation of acoustic vortex waves have been of increasing interest for multiple applications, namely, underwater acoustic communications. Several methods have been presented to form these vortices in underwater environments; however, their performance and propagation over long distances is largely unstudied. Understanding the long-distance propagation of these waves is vital to enhancing their usefulness as an added degree of freedom in underwater acoustic communications systems. In this work, the ray tracing algorithm of bellhop is used to investigate the design parameters of vortex wave transducer and receiver arrays consisting of multiple rings of independently controlled transducers and simulate their performance.