Abstract
It has recently been shown [Weber, T. C. et al. (Year: 2007). “Acoustic propagation through clustered bubble clouds,” IEEE J. Ocean. Eng.32, 513–523] that gas bubble clustering plays a role in determining the acoustic field characteristics of bubbly fluids. In particular, it has been shown that clustering changes the bubble-induced attenuation as well as the ping-to-ping variability in the acoustic field. The degree to which bubble clustering exists in nature, however, is unknown. This paper describes a method for quantifying bubble clustering using a high frequency (400kHz) multibeam sonar, and reports on observations of near-surface bubbleclustering during a storm ( 14.6m∕s wind speed) in the Gulf of Maine. The multibeam sonardata are analyzed to estimate the pair correlation function, a measure of bubble clustering. In order to account for clustering in the mean acoustic field, a modification to the effective mediumwave number is made. With this modification, the multibeam sonar observations are used to predict the effect of clustering on the attenuation of the mean field for short-range propagation (1 m) at frequencies between 10 and 350kHz . Results for this specific case show that clusteringcan cause the attenuation to change by 20%–80% over this frequency range.
Department
Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping
Publication Date
11-2008
Volume
124, Issue 5
Journal Title
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
Pages
2783-2792
Publisher Place
Melville, NY, USA
Publisher
Acoustical Society of America
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
10.1121/1.2990707
Document Type
Journal Article
Recommended Citation
T. C. Weber, ‘Observations of clustering inside oceanic bubble clouds and the effect on short-range acoustic propagation’, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, vol. 124, no. 5, p. 2783, 2008.