The underwater noise from impact pile driving is studied using a finite element model for the sound generation and parabolic equation model for propagation. Results are compared with measurements using a vertical line array deployed at a marine construction site in Puget Sound. It is shown that the dominant underwater noise from impact driving is from the Mach wave associated with the radial expansion of the pile that propagates down the pile after impact at supersonic speed. The predictions of vertical arrival angle associated with the Mach cone, peak pressure level as function of depth, and dominant features of the pressure time series compare well with corresponding field observations.

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A 1-km 2 area located 2 km off the Florida Panhandle (30 22 6 N; 86 38 7 W) was selected as the site to conduct high-frequency acoustic seafloor penetration, sediment propagation, and bottom scattering experiments [1]. Side scan, multibeam, and normal incidence chirp acoustic surveys as well Manuscript

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The bistatic scattering cross section of the sea surface, σ, is studied, along with a model for σ and its comparison with field data. The data are horizontal spatial coherence and ensemble-averaged intensity, which represent integral measures of sea surface bistatic scattering, and the model for σ is used to generate these same properties for comparison with the field data. The data are from an experiment conducted in shallow waters off southern Florida, using a sound frequency of 30 kHz. Directional wave measurements were made with a wave buoy positioned within 100 m of the acoustic measurements, with the environment characterized by rms wave heights of O(10) cm and wind speeds of 1–4 m/s. In the model σ is divided into two components: σr associated with scattering from the rough, air/sea interface, and σb associated with scattering from near-surface bubbles. The second-order small slope approximation is used to compute σr, which is a much improved approach over the traditionally used composite roughness model. The primary advantage in the small slope approximation was the resulting smooth behavior in σr over a broad range of scattering angles. Directional wave data obtained by the wave buoy were converted to an estimate of the 2-D spatial correlation function of sea surface roughness, C(ξ,final_sigma), for use in the scattering calculations. An analysis of the effective correlation properties of C(ξ,final_sigma) suggested that an isotropic correlation function C(ρ), based on the directionally averaged wave-number spectrum, would be equally effective in the scattering calculations. Model-data agreement was quite satisfactory, regardless of whether C(ξ,final_sigma) or C(ρ) was used in the scattering calculations.