Sound velocity and related properties of seafloor sediments in the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea

The Bering Sea shelf and Chukchi Sea shelf are believed to hold enormous oil and gas reserves which have attracted a lot of geophysical surveys. For the interpretation of acoustic geophysical survey results, sediment sound velocity is one of the main parameters. On seven sediment cores collected from the Bering Sea and Chukchi Sea during the 5th Chinese National Arctic Research Expedition, sound velocity measurements were made at 35, 50, 100, 135, 150, 174, 200, and 250 kHz using eight separate pairs of ultrasonic transducers. The measured sound velocities range from 1 425.1 m/s to 1 606.4 m/s and are dispersive with the degrees of dispersion from 2.2% to 4.0% over a frequency range of 35-250 kHz. After the sound velocity measurements, the measurements of selected geotechnical properties and the Scanning Electron Microscopic observation of microstructure were also made on the sediment cores. The results show that the seafioor sediments are composed of silty sand, sandy silt, coarse silt, clayey silt, sand-silt-clay and silty clay. Aggregate and diatom debris is found in the seafloor sediments. Through comparative analysis of microphotographs and geotechnical properties, it is assumed that the large pore spaces between aggregates and the intraparticulate porosity of diatom debris increase the porosity of the seafioor sediments, and affect other geotechnical properties. The correlation analysis of sound velocity and geotechnical properties shows that the correlation of sound velocity with porosity and wet bulk density is extreme significant, while the correlation of sound velocity with clay content, mean grain size and organic content is not significant. The regression equations between porosity, wet bulk density and sound velocity based on best-fit polynomial are given.

The sound velocity and bulk properties of sediments in the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea of China

In order to investigate the correlation between a sound velocity and sediment bulk properties and explore the influence of frequency dependence of the sound velocity on the prediction of the sediment properties by the sound velocity, a compressional wave velocity is measured at frequencies of 25-250 kHz on marine sediment samples collected from the Bohai Sea and the Yellow Sea in laboratory, together with the geotechnical parameters of sediments. The results indicate that the sound velocity ranges from 1.232 to 1.721 km/s for the collected sediment samples with a significant dispersion within the series measuring frequency. Poorly sorted sediments are highly dispersive nearly with a positive linear relationship. The porosity shows a better negative logarithmic correlation with the sound velocity compared with other geotechnical parameters. Generally, the sound velocity increases with the increasing of the average particle size, sand content, wet and dry bulk densities, and decreasing of the clay content, and water content. An important point should be demonstrated that the higher correlation can be obtained when the measuring frequency is low within the frequency ranges from 25 to 250 kHz since the inhomogeneity of sediment properties has a more remarkably influence on the laboratory sound velocity measurement at the high frequency.

Influence of Environmental Conditions on the Sound Velocity Ratio of Seafloor Surficial Sediment

In this work,we investigated the influences of salinity,temperature,and hydrostatic pressure on the acoustics of seafloor surficial sediment by theoretically and experimentally analyzing the sound velocity ratio of the seafloor sediment to the bottom sea-water in typical environmental conditions.Temperature-and pressure-controlled experiments were conducted to examine the charac-teristics of the sound velocity ratio,the results of which agree with the theoretical analysis using the effective density fluid model.Of the three environmental factors considered,the sound velocity ratio was found to be sensitive to temperature and pressure but not to salinity,with the sound velocity ratio decreasing with temperature and hydrostatic pressure.With respect to surficial sediments,pore water plays a key role in the sound velocity ratio of sediment influenced by different environmental factors.The sound velocities of different types of sediments(sandy,silty,and clayey)change similarly with temperature,but change slightly differently with hydro-static pressure.The influence of environmental factors on the sound velocity ratio of seafloor sediment is independent of the detec-tion frequency.The results show that the sound velocity ratio can change up to 0.0008 per℃ when the temperature ranges from 2℃ to 25℃ and up to 0.00064MPa−1 when the seawater depth pressure ranges from 0MPa to 40MPa.

The universal sound velocity formula for the strongly interacting unitary Fermi gas

Due to the scale invariance, the thermodynamic laws of strongly interacting limit unitary Fermi gas can be similar to those of non-interacting ideal gas. For example, the virial theorem between pressure and energy density of the ideal gas P = 2E/aV is still satisfied by the unitary Fermi gas. This paper analyses the sound velocity of unitary Fermi gases with the quasi-linear approximation. For comparison, the sound velocities for the ideal Boltzmann, Bose and Fermi gas are also given. Quite interestingly, the sound velocity formula for the ideal non-interacting gas is found to be satisfied by the unitary Fermi gas in different temperature regions.

Inversion Method for Sound Velocity Profile of Eddy in Deep Ocean

The modal wave number tomography approach is used to obtain sound speed profile of water column in deep ocean. The approach consists of estimation of the local modal eigenvalues from complex pressure field and use of these data as input to modal perturbative inversion method for obtaining the local sound speed profile. The empirical orthonormal function (EOF) is applied to reduce the parameter search space. The ocean environment used for numerical simulations includes the Munk profile as the unperturbed background speed profile and a weak Gaussian eddy as the sound speed profile perturbation. The results of numerical simulations show the method is capable of monitoring the oceanic interior structure.

Relationships of the internodal distance of biological tissue with its sound velocity and attenuation at high frequency in doublet mechanics

In view of the discrete characteristics of biological tissue, doublet mechanics has demonstrated its advantages in the mathematic description of tissue in terms of high frequency （〉 10 MHz） ultrasound. In this paper, we take human breast biopsies as an example to study the influence of the internodal distance, a microscope parameter in biological tissue in doublet mechanics, on the sound velocity and attenuation by numerical simulation. The internodal distance causes the sound velocity and attenuation in biological tissue to change with the increase of frequency. The magnitude of such a change in pathological tissue is distinctly different from that in normal tissue, which can be used to differentiate pathological tissue from normal tissue and can depict the diseased tissue structure by obtaining the sound and attenuation distribution in the sample at high ultrasound frequency. A comparison of sensitivity between the doublet model and conventional continuum model is made, indicating that this is a new method of characterizing ultrasound tissue and diagnosing diseases.

Pressure calibration and sound velocity measurement to 12 GPa in multi-anvil apparatus

We performed the pressure calibration to 12 GPa for 14/6 type(octahedron edge length/WC truncated edge length,in mm) cell assembly in DS 6 × 1400 multi-anvil apparatus by using the phase transitions in Bi(Ⅰ-Ⅱ2.55 GPa,Ⅲ-Ⅴ 7.67 GPa) and ZnTe(LPP-HPP Ⅰ 9.6 GPa,HPP Ⅰ-Ⅱ 12.0 GPa).As verification and application,sound velocity measurements on poly crystalline Al_(2)O_(3) to 12 GPa at room temperature were conducted and the ultrasonic result is in good agreement with previous reports.It demonstrates the feasibility of performing sound velocity measurements close to the mantle transition zone pressure condition in our laboratory.

Influences of Medium Structure of Three-Phase Seabed Deposit on Sound Velocity

Based on the former research, the mechanism of the influence of the medium structure on the sound velocity of the three-phase seabed deposit is discussed by theoretical method. Through analysis of several structure models of three-phase seabed deposit, an equation of sound velocity is presented, which can describe the effect of structure of three-phase deposit on its acoustic velocity. Seen form the derived equation, the equations of the sound velocity of the deposits with different medium structures are different, the influence of the medium structure on the sound velocity is apparent. The equation in the paper provides the theoretical basis to understand the mechanics properties through sound velocity test, and it can be easily adopted in engineering. The influences of the parameters of deposits, void ratio, gas concentration and modulus on sound velocity through the deposit are investigated by numerical analysis of the acoustic velocity. Numerical result shows that the sound velocity of three-phase medium is affected by void ratio, gas concentration and body modulus, and the sound velocity generally increases with the gas concentration increasing. The results of the paper can be helpful to the acoustic method.

A sound velocity method for determining isobaric specific heat capacity

Isobaric specific heat capacity(Cp)is an important parameter not only in physics but also for most materials.Its accurate measurement is particularly critical for performance evaluation of thermoelectric materials,but the experiments by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC)often lead to large uncertainties in the measurements,especially at elevated temperatures.In this study,we propose a simple method to determine Cp by measuring the sound velocity(υ)based on lattice vibration and expansion theory.The relative standard error of theυis smaller than 1%,showing good accuracy and repeatability.The calculated Cp at elevated temperature(>300 K)increases slightly with increasing temperature due to the lattice expansion,which is more reasonable than the Dulong–Petit value.

Theoretical relationship between sound velocity and the physical properties of submarine sediment

Density and elastic modulus change ratios are introduced to describe the sound velocity of submarine sediment. The density change ratio is a composite parameter describing the sound velocity. It is expressed by three physical parameters： porosity, solid phase density and seawater density. The elastic modulus change ratio is also a composite parameter of sound velocity. It is expressed by three physical parameters, including porosity, solid phase modulus and seawater bulk modulus. The sound velocity formula can be developed into a Taylor polyno- mial formula of these two composite parameters. The change in the two composite parameters constitutes the sound velocity surface, which contains the complete information regarding ve- locity properties and sediment characteristics. The one-parameter velocity formula is a curve on the velocity surface. Each porosity-velocity empirical formula, which represents various sea locations and conditions, is transformed to a standard form. This result is the product of a reference velocity and a modulation function. Comparisons of the numerical calculation and measurements show that the derived modulation functions yield similar results. The difference between the velocity formula derived in this paper and the Wood velocity formula is due to the elastic modulus models.

Distributed sound source localization algorithm with sound velocity calibration in windy environments

A new sound source localization method with sound speed compensation is proposed to reduce the wind influence on the performance of conventional TDOA （Time Difference of Arrival） algorithms. First, the sound speed is described as a set of functions of the unknown source location, to approximate the acoustic velocity field distribution in the wind field. Then, they are introduced into the TDOA algorithm, to construct nonlinear equations. Finally, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to estimate the source location. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can significantly improve the localization accuracy for different wind velocities, source locations and test area sizes. The experimental results show that the proposed method can reduce localization errors to about 40% of the original error in a four nodes localization system.

Research on sound velocity measurement in a laboratory for large elastic materials

A measurement scheme carried out in a tank is designed to obtain the compressionaland shear-wave velocities of a large elastic material.A hydrophone is used to receive the high frequency acoustic signals which penetrate the tested material,in order to determine the transmission time from the source to the hydrophone,the transmission time is also calculated according to the ray acoustic theory in layered media.A cost function is built based on the measured and the calculated transmission time,then the compressional- and shear-wave velocities can be obtained using the optimization algorithm.Compared with the traditional measurement scheme,this approach can not only get the 2 kinds of sound velocities in the tested material at the same time,but also keep the integrality of the tested material.With the proposed measurement system,the uncertainty of measurement results is less than 3.5%.

First-principles calculations of high pressure and temperature properties of Fe_(7)C_(3)

Eckstrom-adcock iron carbide(Fe_(7)C_(3))is considered to be the main constituent of the Earth’s inner core due to its low shear wave velocity.However,the crystal structure of Fe_(7)C_(3)remains controversial and its thermoelastic properties are not well constrained at high temperature and pressure.Based on the first-principles simulation method,we calculate the relative phase stability,equation of state,and sound velocity of Fe_(7)C_(3)under core condition.The results indicate that the orthorhombic phase of Fe_(7)C_(3)is stable under the core condition.While Fe_(7)C_(3)does reproduce the low shear wave velocity and high Poisson’s ratio of the inner core,its compressional wave velocity and density are 12%higher and 6%lower than those observed in seismic data,respectively.Therefore,we argue that carbon alone cannot completely explain the thermal properties of the inner core and the inclusion of other light elements may be required.

An Adaptive SVP Simplification Based on Area Difference

Sound velocity profile(SVP)data is indispensable in the multi-beam data processing.The sampling density is of great importance for SVP to represent the vertical variation of sound velocity accurately and guarantee the accuracy of sound ray tracing(SRT).However,the SVP also affects the SRT efficiency significantly,especially in deep-sea multi-beam sounding data processing.To improve SRT efficiency and ensure SRT accuracy,an adaptive SVP simplification method based on area difference is proposed in this article.Firstly,the relationship between the area difference of the raw SVP and the simplified one and SRT bias is studied,and the relationship model of them is built.Then,by considering the constraint of SRT accuracy,the SVP simplification method and the simplifying SVP procedure SVP are given.Finally,a deep water experiment is conducted to verify the proposed method.Compared to the existing method,the proposed method improves the robustness,feasibility of SVP simplification as well as the accuracy and efficiency of SRT.

Ultrasonic, Volumetric and Isentropic Compressibility of Binary Mixtures of 1,4-Dioxane with Primary Alcohols at 303.15 K

Density, viscosity and sound velocity of six binary liquid mixtures of methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, hexanol and octanol with 1,4-dioxane have been measured over the entire range of composition at temperature 303.15K. From the experimental densities, viscosities and sound velocity, the excess molar volume (VE), deviation in viscosity (Δη) and deviation in isentropic compressibility (ΔKS) have been calculated. The results have been used to discuss the nature and strength of intermolecular interactions in these mixtures.

Validation for equation of state in wide regime:Copper as prototype

In this paper we introduce the wide regime equation of state(WEOS)developed in Institute of Applied Physics and Computational Mathematics(IAPCM).A semi-empirical model of the WEOS is given by a thermodynamically complete potential of the Helmholtz free energy which combines several theoretical models and has some adjustable parameters calibrated via some experimental and theoretical data.The validation methods of the equation of state in wide regime are presented using copper as a prototype.The results of the WEOS are well consistent with the available theoretical and experimental data,including ab initio cold curve under compression,isotherm,Hugoniot,off-Hugoniot and sound velocity data.It enhances our confidence in the accuracy of the WEOS,which is very important for the validation and verification of equation of state in high temperature and pressure technology.

Using artificial neural network to predict velocity of sound in liquid water as a function of ambient temperature, electrical and magnetic fields

One of the main thermophysical properties of liquid water is velocity of sound.However,the effect of different externalities on velocity of sound in liquid water is not well known.Therefore,in current study,by designing an artificial neural network(ANN)velocity of sound in liquid water under different externalities is predicted.Selected externalities are ambient temperature from 272.65 K to 348.43 K,different electrical fields in range of 0 V/m to 4.03E+9 V/m and magnetic fields in range of 0-10.0594 T.To prepare of reference dataset for entry to ANN,numerical and experimental data as macroscopic reference data are extracted from microscopic characteristic of water HB strength.In order to achieve an appropriate ANN,ANN architecture sensitivity analysis is conducted by using an iterative algorithm.Learning procedure in the selected feed-forward back propagation ANN is done by hyperbolic transfer functions.Also,Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is utilized for the optimization process.ANNs output showed that the maximum MSE in prediction of velocity of sound is 0.00066.Also,the minimum of correlation coefficient in prediction of velocity of sound is 0.99131.Based on the ANNs outputs,weights and bias,an equation to predict of velocity of sound in liquid water under intended externalities is proposed.Also,according to weight sensitivity analysis input of electrical fields with 63%relative importance percentage has a grater impression on the response variable of velocity of sound in liquid water.©2016 Shanghai Jiaotong University.Published by Elsevier B.V.

High-pressure structure and elastic properties of tantalum single crystal:First principles investigation

Since knowledge of the structure and elastic properties of Ta at high pressures is critical for addressing the recent controversies regarding the high-pressure stable phase and elastic properties, we perform a systematical study on the highpressure structure and elastic properties of the cubic Ta by using the first-principles method. Results show that the initial body-centered cubic phase of Ta remains stable even up to 500 GPa and the high-pressure elastic properties are excellent/y consistent with the available experimental results. Besides, the high-pressure sound velocities of the single- and polycrystals Ta are also calculated based on the elastic constants, and the predications exhibit good agreement with the existing experimental data.

Comparison on the mixture rules of sound velocities used in characterizing biomedium components

In this paper, several mixtrue rules of sound velocity and their usefulness in characterizing the components of biomedium are analysed. It is pointed out that for characterizing the components of biomedium, the rules are compatible with each other under certain conditions, and the errors between each rule and real sound velocity are difffcrcnt. It concludes that there is no general rule suitable for various media among above mentioned rules.

Elastic properties of disordered binary hcp-Fe alloys under high pressure: Effects of light elements

The effects of light elements on the elastic properties of disordered binary hcp-Fe alloys were investigated at high pressures using plane-wave density functional theory combined with the Monte Carlo special quasi-random structure method.We found that the increase in the O content in hcp-Fe had a more pronounced effect on the sound velocity than Si,S,and C.The longitudinal wave velocity was decreased by∼6%with 2%O content,which was a much greater decrease than the values of 0.6%and 2%induced by the same content of Si and S,respectively,under high pressures.Compared with the other three light elements,the longitudinal wave velocity of the Fe-C alloy exhibited the most gradual decreasing with increasing C content.In addition,the effects of different O and S contents on the anisotropy of hcp-Fe alloys strongly depended on the variation in pressure,whereas the pressure only slightly affected the anisotropy of Fe-Si alloy systems.