Boundary Element Method for Underwater Acoustic Propagation in Complex Marine Environments

Sound propagation in seas can be effectively predicted so that procedures like communication between submarines, sonar identification, and preservation of marine ecosystems can be established. Conventional ray based acoustic models do not adequately model the wave phenomena which include wave diffraction, reflection and scattering in non-homogeneous underwater conditions. The current paper will build upon a state of the art framework in boundary element method (BEM) towards the modeling of low/mid-frequency acoustic wave propagation in complex aquatic structures with variable bathymetry, stratified sediment and variable thermoclines. It employs the underwater acoustics modeling of infinite domain by using Greenfunction formulations and non-reflecting conditions used to deal with the modeling boundaries. A hybrid parallelization member of MPI and open MP is used to enable the scalability of its computing capabilities to HPC clusters. When compared to experimental measures of hydrophones arrays in shallow water test sites it is found that the model captures multipath interference and swings in intensity better than current semi-empirical models. Novelty It is an extension of BEM to include coupled fluid-seabed interfaces in environmental acoustics, providing the simulation of more realistic scenarios. The study gives the height to the naval engineers, oceanographers, and environmental agencies to build effective underwater communication systems in addition to evaluating the effects of human activity on the marine organisms on acoustics.