title: Small-slope simulation of acoustic backscatter from a physical model of an elastic ocean bottom.
abstract: An underwater acoustic experiment with a two-dimensional rough interface, milled from a slab of PVC, was performed at a tank facility. The purpose was to verify the predictions of numerical models of acoustic rough surface scattering, using a manufactured physical model of an ocean bottom that featured shear effects, nonhomogeneous roughness statistics, and root-mean-square roughness amplitude on the order of the acoustic wavelength. Predictions of the received time series and interface scattering strength in the 100-300 kHz band were obtained from the Bottom Reverberation from Inhomogeneities and Surfaces-Small-Slope Approximation (BORIS-SSA) numerical scattering model. The predictions were made using direct measurements of scattering model inputs-specifically, the geoacoustic properties from laboratory analysis of material samples and the grid of surface heights from a touch-trigger probe. BORIS-SSA predictions for the amplitude of the received time series were shown to be accurate with a root-mean-square residual error of about 1 dB, while errors for the scattering strength prediction were higher (2-3.5 dB). The work is part of an ongoing effort to use physical models to examine a variety of acoustic scattering and propagation phenomena involving the ocean bottom.
authors.affiliation: United States Naval Research Laboratory, 4555 Overlook Avenue, Washington, DC 20375-5350, USA. soukup@abyss.nrl.navy.mil
authors.forename: Raymond J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Soukup
authors.forename: Gaetano
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Canepa
authors.forename: Harry J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: Jason E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Summers
authors.forename: Robert F
authors.initials: RF
authors.lastname: Gragg