Numerical Study of Acoustic Propagation Characteristics in the Multi-scale Seafloor Random Media

Abstract

There is some uncertainty as to the applicability or accuracy of current theories for wave propagation in sediments. Numerical modelling of acoustic data has long been recognized to be a powerful method of understanding of complicated wave propagation and interaction. In this paper, we used the coupled two-dimensional PSM-BEM program to simulate the process of acoustic wave propagation in the seafloor with distributed multi-scale random media. The effects of fluid flow between the pores and the grains with multi-scale distribution were considered. The results show that the coupled PSM-BEM program can be directly applied to both high and low frequency seafloor acoustics. A given porous frame with the pore space saturated with fluid can greatly increase the magnitude of acoustic anisotropy. acoustic wave velocity dispersion and attenuation are significant over a frequency range which spans at least two orders of magnitude.