Numerical study of broadband sound pulse propagation in three-dimensional oceanic waveguides

In this paper, the propagation of a broadband sound pulse in three-dimensional (3D) shallow water waveguides is investigated numerically. Two cases are examined: (i) the 3D ASA benchmark wedge, and (ii) the 3D Gaussian canyon. The numerical method used to solve the four-dimensional acoustic problem is based on a Fourier synthesis technique. The frequency-domain calculations are carried out using the fully 3D parabolic equation based model 3DWAPE, recently modified to include a wide-angle paraxial approximation for the azimuthal component. A broadband sound pulse with a central frequency of 25 Hz and a bandwith of 40 Hz is considered. For both test cases, 3D results corresponding to a 25 Hz cw point source are first presented and compared with predictions from a 3D adiabatic modal model. Then, the acoustic problem is solved considering the broadband source pulse. The modal structure of the received signals is analyzed and exhibits multiple mode arrivals of the propagating signal.