2D DOA Estimation of Coherent Signals with a Separated Linear Acoustic Vector-Sensor Array

In this paper, a two-dimensional(2D) DOA estimation algorithm of coherent signals with a separated linear acoustic vector-sensor(AVS) array consisting of two sparse AVS arrays is proposed. Firstly,the partitioned spatial smoothing(PSS) technique is used to construct a block covariance matrix, so as to decorrelate the coherency of signals. Then a signal subspace can be obtained by singular value decomposition(SVD) of the covariance matrix. Using the signal subspace, two extended signal subspaces are constructed to compensate aperture loss caused by PSS.The elevation angles can be estimated by estimation of signal parameter via rotational invariance techniques(ESPRIT) algorithm. At last, the estimated elevation angles can be used to estimate automatically paired azimuth angles. Compared with some other ESPRIT algorithms, the proposed algorithm shows higher estimation accuracy, which can be proved through the simulation results.

Helical particle manipulation based on power-exponent-phase acoustic vortices generated by a sector transducer array

The characteristics of traditional acoustic vortices(AVs) were verified by the cross-sectional axisymmetric pressure distributions with perfect phase spirals around the center pressure null. In order to generate a non-axisymmetric pressure distribution, the concept of power-exponent-phase was first introduced into the formation of AV beams, named “powerexponent-phase acoustic vortices(PAVs)” in this paper. Based on a ring-array of sector transducers, the helical distribution of the low-pressure valley in cross-sections of PAVs, which enables particles to move from a distant position to the center low-potential well along a certain spiral passageway, was proved theoretically. The particle manipulation behavior for PAVs with a power order of 2 is numerically modeled and experimentally confirmed. The results show that PAVs with a nonaxisymmetric spiral pressure distribution can be used to realize the directional transport of particles in an enlarged scope,suggesting prospective application potential in biomedical engineering.

Numerical simulation of an acoustic field generated by a phased arc array in a fluid-filled borehole

The acoustic tools widely used in borehole well logging and being developed in borehole acoustic reflection imaging do not have the function of azimuthal measurement due to a symmetric source, so they can not be used to evaluate the azimuthal character of borehole formation. In this paper, a 3D finite difference method was used to simulate the acoustic fields in a fluid-filled borehole generated by a traditional monopole source and a phased arc array. Acoustic waveforms were presented for both cases. The analysis of the simulated waveforms showed that different from the monopole source, the acoustic energy generated by the phased arc array transmitter mainly radiated to the borehole in a narrow azimuthal range, which was the key technique to implement azimuthal acoustic well logging. Similar to the monopole source, the waveforms generated by the phased arc array in the fluid-filled borehole also contain compressional （P） waves and shear （S） waves refracted along the borehole, which is the theoretical foundation of phased arc array acoustic well logging.

Numerical simulation of an acoustic field generated by a phased arc array in a fluid-filled cased borehole

Transducers that are widely applied in cement bond evaluation tools, such as cement bond logs and variable density logs, cannot radiate acoustic energy directionally because of the characteristics of monopole sources. A phased arc array transmitter, which is a novel transducer that differs from monopole and dipole transducers, is presented in this study. To simulate the acoustic field generated by a phased arc array in a fluid-filled cased borehole with different channelings, a 3D finite-difference time-domain method is adopted. The acoustic field generated by a traditional monopole source is also simulated and compared with the field generated by the phased arc array transmitter. Numerical simulation results show that the phased arc array radiates energy directionally in a narrow angular range in the borehole, thereby compressing the acoustic energy into a narrow range in the casing pipe, the cement, and the formation. We present the analyses of first-arrival waveforms and the amplitudes of casing waves at different azimuthal angles for the two different sources. The results indicate that employing a directional source facilitates azimuthal identification and analysis of possible channeling behind the casing pipe.

Simulation of acoustic fields emitted by ultrasonic phased array in austenitic steel weld

Ultrasonic inspection of austenitic steel weld is a great challenge due to skewed and distorted beam in such a highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous material. To improve the ultrasonic measurement in this situation, it is essential to have an in-depth understanding of ultrasound characteristics in austenitic steel weld. To meet such a need, in the present study we propose a method which combines the weld model, Dijkstra’s path-finding algorithm and Gaussian beam equivalent point source model to calculate the acoustic fields from ultrasonic phased array in such a weld. With this method, the acoustic field in a steel-austenitic weld-steel three-layered structure for a linear phase array transducer is calculated and the propagation characteristics of ultrasound in weld are studied. The research results show that the method proposed here is capable of calculating the acoustic field in austenitic weld. Additionally, beam steering and focusing can be still realized in the austenitic steel weld and the beam distortion is more severe in the middle of weld than at other positions.

Array gain for a conformal acoustic vector sensor array:An experimental study

An acoustic vector sensor can measure the components of particle velocity and the acoustic pressure at the same point simultaneously, which provides a larger array gain against the ambient noise and a higher angular resolution than the omnidirectional pressure sensor. This paper presents an experimental study of array gain for a conformal acoustic vector sensor array in a practical environment. First, the manifold vector is calculated using the real measured data so that the effects of array mismatches can be minimized. Second, an optimal beamformer with a specific spatial response on the basis of the stable directivity of the ambient noise is designed, which can effectively suppress the ambient noise. Experimental results show that this beamformer for the conformal acoustic vector sensor array provides good signal-to- noise ratio enhancement and is more advantageous than the delay-and-sum and minimum variance distortionless response beamformers.

Simulation on the Models of Small Scale Passive Acoustic Sensor Arrays Based on Time-Delay Estimation Method

The passive acoustic localization with planar sensor array is introduced. Based on a method to eliminate the influence of effective sound velocity in passive detection, a new five-sensors solid array and its localization model are put forward. The factors that influence the precision of the localization are analyzed. Considering the errors from the factors synchronously, the simulation compares the solid array with the planar array. It can be proved that the five-sensor solid array is better than the four-sensor planar array in the estimation of bearing elements.

Research on data diagnosis method of acoustic array sensor device based on spectrogram

Acoustic array sensor device for partial discharge detection is widely used in power equipment inspection with the advantages of non-contact and precise positioning compared with partial discharge detection methods such as ultrasonic method and pulse current method.However,due to the sensitivity of the acoustic array sensor and the influence of the equipment operation site interference,the acoustic array sensor device for partial discharge type diagnosis by phase resolved partial discharge(PRPD)map might occasionally presents incorrect results,thus affecting the power equipment operation and maintenance strategy.The acoustic array sensor detection device for power equipment developed in this paper applies the array design model of equal-area multi-arm spiral with machine learning fast fourier transform clean(FFT-CLEAN)sound source localization identification algorithm to avoid the interference factors in the noise acquisition system using a single microphone and conventional beam forming algorithm,improves the spatial resolution of the acoustic array sensor device,and proposes an acoustic array sensor device based on the acoustic spectrogram.The analysis and diagnosis method of discharge type of acoustic array sensor device can effectively reduce the system misjudgment caused by factors such as the resolution of the acoustic imaging device and the time domain pulse of the digital signal,and reduce the false alarm rate of the acoustic array sensor device.The proposed method is tested by selecting power cables as the object,and its effectiveness is proved by laboratory verification and field verification.

Analysis, Implementation, and Application of Acoustic and Seismic Arrays

In this paper, we consider the analysis, implementation, and application of wideband sources using both seismic and acoustic sensors. We use the approximate maximum likelihood (AML) algorithm to perform acoustic direction of arrival (DOA). For non-uniform noise spectra, whitening filtering was applied to the received acoustic signals before the AML operation. For short-range seismic DOA applications, one method was based on eigen-decomposition of the covariance matrix and a second method was based on surface wave analysis. Two well-known optimization schemes were used to estimate the source locations from the estimated DOAs at sensors of known locations. Experimental estimation of the DOAs and resulting localizations using the acoustic and seismic signals generated by striking a heavy metal plate by a hammer were reported.

Research on Acoustic Localization Algorithm Based on Dual Four-Element Arrays

The passive acoustic locating technology is widely used in military fields. The traditional locating method with single array has low precision of distance estimation, but comparatively high precision of angle estimation. According to the characteristic, the algorithm for acoustic passive localization based on the azimuth angle and geometry position of the two arrays is derived to estimate the target distance, and the simulation for the factors that affect the localization precision also proceeds. The result of the simulation shows the precision of localization estimation with dual arrays is superior to that of single array, and the passive localization algorithm based on dual array can meet the practical demands.

Effect of the fluctuant acoustic channel on the gain of a linear array in the ocean waveguide

The inhomogenous ocean waveguide, which leads the amplitude and phase of the signal arriving at a hydrophone array to fluctuate, is one of the causes that make the array gain deviate from its ideal value. The relationship between the array gain and the fluctuant acoustic channel is studied theoretically. The analytical expression of the array gain is derived via an acoustic channel transfer function on the assumption that the ambient noise field is isotropic. The expression is expanded via the Euler formula to give an insight into the effect of the fluctuant acoustic channel on the array gain. The result demonstrates that the amplitude fluctuation of the acoustic channel transfer functions has a slight effect on the array gain; however, the uniformity of the phase difference between the weighting coefficient and the channel transfer function on all the hydrophones in the array is a major factor that leads the array gain to further deviate from its ideal value. The numerical verification is conducted in the downslope waveguide, in which the gain of a horizontal uniform linear array（HLA） with a wide-aperture operating in the continental slope area is considered. Numerical result is consistent with the theoretical analysis.

Simulation of phased array S-scan acoustic field in FSW joint of aluminum alloy extrudate with complex shape

The shape of aluminum alloy extrudate used in high-speed train is complex, structural noises from the surfaces of the extrudate will be received when using ultrasonic phased array to detect the flaws in FSW. To solve this problem, ultrasonic phased array acoustic field model and propagation simulation of acoustic waves were introduced to simulate the acoustic pressure distribution and the propagation of the acoustic waves. With the methods above, the detection parameters can be optimized and as a result, the experimental process can be simplified and the detection efficiency can be improved. Meanwhile, the echoes in the S-scan images can be predicted, which can help analyze the detection results and judge the defects.

Power Estimation of Acoustic Sources by Sensor Array Processing

A constant problem is to localize a number of acoustic sources, to separate their individual signals and to estimate their strengths in a propagation medium. An acoustic receiving array with signal processing algorithms is then used. The most widely used algorithm is the conventional beamforming algorithm but it has a very low resolution and high sidelobes that may cause a signal leakage problem. Several new signal processors for arrays of sensors are derived to evaluate the strengths of acoustic signals arriving at an array of sensors. In particular, we present the covariance vector estimator and the pseudoinverse of the array manifold matrix estimator. The covariance vector estimator uses only the correlations between sensors and the pseudoinverse of the array manifold matrix estimator operates with the minimum eigenvalues of the covariance matrix. Numerical and experimental results are presented.

A Robust and Efficient Compressed Sensing Algorithm for Wideband Acoustic Imaging

Wideband acoustic imaging,which combines compressed sensing(CS)and microphone arrays,is widely used for locating acoustic sources.However,the location results of this method are unstable,and the computational efficiency is low.In this work,in order to improve the robustness and reduce the computational cost,a DCS-SOMP-SVD compressed sensing method,which combines the distributed compressed sensing using simultaneously orthogonal matching pursuit(DCS-SOMP)and singular value decomposition(SVD)is proposed.The performance of the DCS-SOMP-SVD is studied through both simulation and experiment.In the simulation,the locating results of the DCS-SOMP-SVD method are compared with the wideband BP method and the DCS-SOMP method.In terms of computational efficiency,the proposed method is as efficient as the DCS-SOMP method and more efficient than the wideband BP method.In terms of locating accuracy,the proposed method can still locate all sources when the signal to noise ratio(SNR)is−20 dB,while the wideband BP method and the DCS-SOMP method can only locate all sources when the SNR is higher than 0 dB.The performance of the proposed method can be improved by expanding the frequency range.Moreover,there is no extra source in the maps of the proposed method,even though the target sparsity is overestimated.Finally,a gas leak experiment is conducted to verify the feasibility of the DCS-SOMP-SVD method in the practical engineering environment.The experimental results show that the proposed method can locate both two leak sources in different frequency ranges.This research proposes a DCS-SOMP-SVD method which has sufficient robustness and low computational cost for wideband acoustic imaging.

Nonlinear Acoustic Shadow Method to Reduce Reverberation Artifact

A novel technique for reducing reverberation artifact in acoustic shadow imaging using nonlinear ultrasound interaction, called nonlinear acoustic shadow method, has been developed and experimentally studied. In this technique, the conventional acoustic shadow method is modified by using the secondary wave generated by nonlinear interaction of two primary sound waves emitted from parametric array. Either conventional or nonlinear acoustic shadow imaging is carried out for aluminum square cylinder and the size of the shadow is compared. The result shows that the nonlinear acoustic shadow method reduces reverberation artifact inside the square cylinder and has better accuracy in the size measurement than conventional acoustic shadow method.

Extraction method of component waves in full waveform acoustic data and its application

In conventional slowness-time coherence(STC)method,slowness and time need to be searched at the same time,which limits the precision and lowers the efficiency.The dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm aims to enhance the efficiency of data processing and to improve the precision.The algorithm changes the searching pattern of conventional slowness-time coherence method to acquire the slowness of component waves in array acoustic logging data.Based on energy ratio of short time window versus long time window and slowness-time coherence method,the algorithm first acquires the arrivals of the component waves using energy ratio of short time window versus long time window method.It then uses the calculated results as the arrivals in conventional slowness-time coherence method,so the slowness-time two-dimensional searching process is simplified to slowness searching process.Based on dichotomy method,the searching pattern is further optimized in replace of the ergodic searching pattern in conventional slowness-time coherence method,which means that as the iteration proceeds,the current searching interval is reduced to half of the former,so the number of searching times is decreased.The dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm is applied to well L in the data processing.Compared with conventional slowness-time coherence method,for compressional wave,the searching efficiency of the algorithm is 4.53 times better,while for Stoneley wave,the searching efficiency is 1.85 times better.Compared with conventional logging data,the average absolute error of the results of the dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm is 1.14μs/ft smaller than that of the conventional method,while the average relative error is 1.2 percent lower.The dichotomy method combined with slowness-time coherence algorithm shows good results in its application,which can enhance the processing efficiency remarkably while getting reliable results at the same time.

Laboratory simulation on acoustic well-logging with phased array transmitter

Two small scale acoustic phased arrays with 4 elements have been designed and assembled in the laboratory. Experiments have been carried out with them. It is found that both directivity and radiation lobe width of the phased array can be regulated by changing the time delay between the input signals on neighboring elements. Results measured are in good agreement with those calculated. By using the phased array as an acoustic transmitter and hydrophone as a receiver, small scale acoustic well-logging simulations have been carried out both on an aluminum modei well and on a concrete one. Experimental results show that, by increasing the time delay of the input signals on neighboring elements, the steered radiation angle of the phased array becomes larger and larger, and generation conditions of the refracted compressional wave and the refracted shear wave are reached successively, and the refracted compressional wave, the refracted shear wave and the Stoneley wave are strengthened, respec-tively. Therefore, by choosing element spacing of a phased array and acoustic wave frequency appropriately, the main radiation lobe of the phased array can be widened to cover the first critical angle of all kinds of formations, which makes it possible to apply phased array acoustic well-logging in any formation continuously without regulating directivity of the phased array.

Underwater hybrid near-field acoustical holography based on the measurement of vector hydrophone array

Hybrid near-field acoustical holography(NAH) is developed for reconstructing acoustic radiation from a cylindrical source in a complex underwater environment. In hybrid NAH,we combine statistically optimized near-field acoustical holography(SONAH) and broadband acoustical holography from intensity measurements(BAHIM) to reconstruct the underwater cylindrical source field. First,the BAHIM is utilized to regenerate as much acoustic pressures on the hologram surface as necessary,and then the acoustic pressures are taken as input to the formulation implemented numerically by SONAH. The main advantages of this technology are that the complex pressure on the hologram surface can be reconstructed without reference signal,and the measurement array can be smaller than the source,thus the practicability and efficiency of this technology are greatly enhanced. Numerical examples of a cylindrical source are demonstrated. Test results show that hybrid NAH can yield a more accurate reconstruction than conventional NAH. Then,an experiment has been carried out with a vector hydrophone array. The experimental results show the advantage of hybrid NAH in the reconstruction of an acoustic field and the feasibility of using a vector hydrophone array in an underwater NAH measurement,as well as the identification and localization of noise sources.

Modeling of the nonlinear acoustic field generated from a phased array using Gaussian superposition technique

The nonlinearity has significant effect on the ultrasonic therapy using phased ar- rays. A numerical approach is developed to calculate the nonlinear sound field generated from a phased array based on the Gaussian superposition technique. The parameters of the phased array elements are first estimated from the focal parameters using the inverse matrix algorithm; Then the elements are expressed as a set of Gaussian functions; Finally, the nonlinear sound field can be calculated using the Gaussian superposition technique. In the numerical simulation, a 64~ 1 phased array is used as the transmitter. In the linear case, the difference between the results of the Gaussian superposition technique and the Fresnel integral is less than 0.5%, which verifies the feasibility of the approach. In the nonlinear case, the nonlinear fields of single-focus modes and double-focus modes are calculated. The results reveal that the nonlinear effects can improve the focusing performance, and the nonlinear effects are related with the source pressures and the excitation frequencies.

1D Acoustic Velocity-Independent DOA Estimation Method with Arbitrary Arrays

The performance of conventional direction of arrival(DOA)method is greatly affected by the uncertainty of wave velocity in underwater environment.To solve this problem,an acoustic velocity-independent method is proposed to estimate the underwater DOA using two arbitrary intersecting uniform linear arrays in this study.By introducing the additional array compared to the conventional DOA methods,the proposed algorithm can make its performance independent of the acoustic velocity through the geometric relationship between those two arrays.The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method is more accurate and robust than other methods in an unknown sound velocity.