CN102282607A

CN102282607A - Acoustic markers

Info

Publication number: CN102282607A
Application number: CN2010800044762A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 卡尔·彼得·泰特曼; 安德鲁·马尔科姆·塔尔洛奇
Original assignee: Subsea Asset Location Technologies Ltd
Current assignee: Subsea Asset Location Technologies Ltd
Priority date: 2009-01-16
Filing date: 2010-01-15
Publication date: 2011-12-14
Anticipated expiration: 2030-01-15
Also published as: GB2477711A; JP2012515364A; SG172994A1; EP2387784A2; CN102282607B; WO2010082062A2; GB2477711B; CA2748884A1; WO2010082062A3; BRPI1007503A2; GB0900668D0; GB201110673D0; RU2011133882A; AU2010205518A1

Abstract

An acoustic reflector is described comprising a shell around a core, in which portions of the shell are capable of transmitting acoustic waves incident on the shell into the core to be focused and reflected from an area of the shell located opposite to the area of incidence of the acoustic waves to provide a reflected acoustic signal output from the reflector. Incident acoustic radiation will be differentially reflected depending on the portion of the reflector on which the incident acoustic radiation impinges.

Description

Acoustic marker

WO2006/075167 and WO2009/122184 (both are that U.K. Ministry of Defence applies for and incorporate this paper into way of reference) have described sound reflector especially, and this sound reflector can use in many ways to indicate submerged structure, object or geologic feature.

GB patented claim 0913203.6,0913388.5 and 0917714.8 (be seabed location technology company limited (Subsea Asset Location Technologies Limited) application and incorporate this paper into way of reference) is described and claimed more sound reflector.The sound reflector that comprises housing and core has been described in these applications, described housing is around core, and can will be incident on acoustic wave transmission on this surface of shell interior to core to be focused and by from housing and the regional reflex incident area relative position, thereby provide reflected sound signal output from reverberator, its middle shell is determined with respect to core that size makes and is incident on that a part of sound wave on the housing wall is coupled in the housing and is directed in housing around the periphery of housing, thereby then by radiation again to export in conjunction with the reflected sound signal that enhancing is provided longways mutually with described reflected sound signal output, wherein the ratio of the ripple transmission speed in the ripple transmission speed in the core and the housing is in the scope of about 3: 1 to 3.2: 1 or its harmonic wave, in " 3: 1 " and " 3.2: 1 " are also included within.

Yet this reverberator is omnidirectional normally, and can provide on a small quantity about the certain reflector, its environment or the acoustic wave source that the relate to information with respect to the relative position of reverberator.

According to the present invention, a kind of sound reflector comprises the housing around core, the acoustic wave transmission that at least some parts of described housing can will be incident on the described housing arrives in the described core, with be focused and from by from regional reflex described housing and incident area relative position sound wave, thereby provide from the output of the reflected sound signal of described reverberator, and wherein will differentially reflect described incident sound radiation according to the difference of the part of the described reverberator that the incident sound radiation impacted.

Preferably described sound reflector is the form around the rotary body of central axis, so that it can be mounted and rotate or be allowed to rotate to be provided at as the pulse-echo under one or more different frequencies of the feature of described reverberator or its environment.The shape of suitable reverberator comprises spheroid, right cylinder, right cone or ovoid.

In one embodiment, it is the core material of 840m/s to 1500m/s that described sound reflector has the compression velocity of wave, and has housing, described housing is determined size with respect to described core, make a part of sound wave on the part be incident on described housing be coupled in the described housing and in described housing, be directed around the periphery of described housing, then by radiation again with described reflected sound signal output mutually longways in conjunction with exporting with the reflected sound signal that enhancing is provided.

In another embodiment, described housing is determined size with respect to described core, make the part of the sound wave at least a portion be incident on described housing be coupled in the described housing wall and in described housing wall, be directed around the periphery of described housing, then by radiation again with described reflected sound signal output mutually longways in conjunction with exporting with the acoustical signal that enhancing is provided.

In another embodiment, described sound reflector comprises housing and core, described housing is around described core, and the acoustic wave transmission that described housing can will be incident on this surface of shell arrives in the described core, to be focused and by from described housing and the regional reflex incident area relative position, thereby provide reflected sound signal output from described reverberator, wherein said housing is determined size with respect to described core, make and to be incident on that a part of sound wave on the housing wall is coupled in the described housing and in described housing, to be directed around the periphery of described housing, thereby then by radiation again to export in conjunction with the reflected sound signal that enhancing is provided longways mutually with described reflected sound signal output, the ratio of the ripple transmission speed in the ripple transmission speed in the wherein said core and the described housing is in the scope of about 3: 1 to 3.2: 1 or its harmonic wave, in " 3: 1 " and " 3.2: 1 " are also included within.

The described core of described sound reflector can be formed by one deck or more multi-layered concentric solid material.In another embodiment, described core has a plurality of material layers parallel, that have different compression velocities of wave.

In another embodiment, the part on the surface of described housing is covered by acoustical material, described acoustical material will absorb described reverberator otherwise with the reflection frequency under incident sound.

If described sound reflector is a right cylinder, then acoustical material can be with the arranged in form of the parallel strip of the central axis that is parallel to described right cylinder on the surface of described right cylinder.Rotation for described right cylinder will confirm, the reflective sound wave feature of the width of bar and interval and rotational speed.

If described sound reflector is a spheroid, then wherein said acoustical material is arranged on the described spherome surface by segmentation.

Described core can be planted elastomeric material by one or more and be constituted, and by have different elastomeric materials in the different layers of described core, the physical behavio(u)r of the described core in the zones of different will be different for different audio frequencies.Therefore the some parts of described core can and transmit this sound wave in response to the sound wave under a frequency, this sound wave will with the part combination longways mutually of the identical ripple that has been transmitted around described housing, but the other parts of described core will be transmitted ripple as follows, promptly, this ripple will be under same frequency and a part of phase of wave that has been transmitted around the described housing wall ground recombination that disappears, thereby obtains less reflection or do not obtain reflection.As seen, frequency by changing acoustical signal and the direction between acoustic wave source and the described reverberator, reflected signal and can provide information about the spatial relationship between described signal source and the reverberator by its frequency that obtains reflected signal.

The suitable material that is used for described core can comprise silicon rubber, such as RTV12 or RTV655 silicon rubber.In this case, described housing can be made of rigid material.Can be steel, fill polyamide or glass-filled nylon as GRP (GRP) or glass.Yet under the situation of more recently reverberator, when being metal shell, core material can be a metal, as long as the ratio of ripple transmission speed in the described core and the ripple transmission speed in the described housing is in the scope of about 3: 1 to 3.2: 1 or its harmonic wave, " 3: 1 " or " 3.2: 1 " are included.

In an embodiment of the invention, described sound reflector is so shaped that the incident acoustic wave of impact on the part on surface will be scattered and be not reflected.Right cone is an example of this shape, pointing to most advanced and sophisticated sound wave is scattered, the sound wave that points to base portion will be by scattering simply, in the inclined side of the described awl of the most approaching described tip and described bottom scattering takes place equally, yet the supermedial incident acoustic wave that impacts in described inclined side will be reflected.Avette will acting in a similar manner.

Device of the present invention can be as concentrator marker with the specific direction of indication near immersed body, to help towards the final navigation of object or so that directional information to be provided.As an example, valve can be with described reverberator mark of the present invention under water.The pipeline that is connected with described valve in general can be with the omni-directional reflector mark to indicate the position in its submersible entry.Be attached to the direction reverberator of described valve owing to can be used to indicate in the submersible entry from it safely near the correct direction of described valve.

The Another application of device of the present invention provides a kind of " beacon " under water, if can rotatably be installed and be provided with power or be equipped with fin in ocean current along the reverberator of one or more specific direction reflected sound signals so that it is rotated, when then described reverberator is inquired on by acoustics with the reflected impulse signal.The position of rotational speed or absorbing material will give the reflected sound signal concrete pulse characteristics, can discern relevant reverberator by described concrete pulse characteristics.Can be used for providing positional information as this feature " in the beacon ".

Another application of the invention is the underway between the mark fixed object (such as wrecked ship or steep cliff) under water or the place of path.Described reverberator can be different from feature at opposite side in the feature of a side of described passage, so that serve as red light and green light on the buoy of mark submarine canyon in a similar manner.

Now with reference to accompanying drawing the present invention is described, wherein:

Fig. 1 illustrates the principle that is used for a kind of sound reflector of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is the indicative icon by the follow-on xsect that is used for a kind of sound reflector of the present invention, the figure shows some acoustic path by the reverberator core;

Fig. 3 is used for the target strength of two different reverberators of type shown in Figure 2 and the curve map of frequency, the figure shows the influence of the housing wall of different-thickness to frequency response;

Fig. 4 shows the spherical reflector that has the reflection exclusion area according to of the present invention;

Fig. 5 and 6 illustrates to be mounted to and can rotate and the similar spherical reflector of the pulse of cremasteric reflex acoustical signal when being inquired by the narrow beam sound source;

Fig. 7 illustrates according to another spherical reflector of the present invention;

Fig. 8 illustrates according to cylindrical reflector of the present invention; And

Fig. 9 illustrates according to another cylindrical reflector of the present invention, and this cylindrical reflector is designed to surface portion reflected sound signal under different frequency of impacting according to acoustical signal.

In Fig. 1, sound reflector 10 comprises spherical shell 12.Housing 12 surrounds core 16.

Housing 12 is made of the rigid material such as GRP (GRP) material or steel.Core 16 is by constituting such as elastomeric solid material.The predetermined combinations that sound reflector can depend on the material that is used for forming housing and core in its frequency of using down or frequency range with and relative size.

Yet, will understand as the reader, other combination that can materials used is as long as housing and core come relative to each other to determine size according to the wave propagation characteristic of material therefor.

Be incident on the housing 12 from the incident acoustic wave 18 of sound source (not shown) transmission.In the high place of incident angle, most of sound wave 18 is transmitted in the core 16 by housing wall 14.When sound wave 18 passed core 16 and advances, they were refracted, thereby are focused on the opposite side 20 of housing, and sound wave 18 is reflected back toward from this opposite side 20 along same paths as reflected sound signal output 22.Yet in the less place of incident angle, at 24 places, coupled zone of housing, that is, at the angle place enough little with respect to housing, it is interior so that housing ripple 26 to be provided that a part of incident wave 18 is coupled to wall 14, and this housing ripple 26 is directed in wall 14 around the periphery of housing 12.

Form the housing 12 and the material of core 16 and the relative size of housing and core and be determined in advance, make the transmission time of housing ripple 26 identical with the transmission time of the inner echo that focuses on geometrically (being reflected sound signal output 22).Therefore, the effect that is radiated the output of housing ripple in the fluid and reflected sound signal again is a homophase each other, therefore under the frequency of target mutually longways in conjunction with so that the reflected sound signal output (that is high target strength) of enhancing to be provided.That is to say, for spherical acoustic reflector, the periphery of housing is a path, therefore must determine size according to the transmission speed characteristic separately of housing and core, make to form the resonance standing wave in housing, this resonance standing wave is exported homophase to combine longways mutually with it with the reflected sound signal.

Preferably, the single solid material of velocity of wave constitutes core between the 840m/s to 1300m/s by having.Alternatively, core can comprise two-layer or more multi-layered different materials, and for the sound wave of the frequency of special selection, these materials will provide the more effective focusing of incident wave and/or the low decay in material, thereby cause stronger output signal generally.Yet naturally, expection is made under the situation of layering core complicacy and cost will be bigger.Under the situation that core is formed by two-layer or more multi-layered different materials, any material or two kinds of materials can have the velocity of wave that reaches to 1500m/s.

In order to be suitable for using reflector arrangement of the present invention, core material must make it can present velocity of wave within the required range and do not suffer high acoustic energy absorption.Core can be made of elastomeric material, and silicones for example is particularly from RTV12 or the RTV655 silicon rubber or the Alsil 14401 peroxide cure silicon rubber of Beyer Co., Ltd (Bayer).

Housing can be made of rigid material, for example, for GRP (GRP) material, is in particular such as 50% glass-filled nylon 66, " Zytel "

-33% glass-reinforced nylon or 40% glass are filled the glass-filled nylon of semiaromatic polyamide composition, perhaps are steel, and can be sized to make its thickness approximately be core radius 1/10th.Yet, the person skilled in the art will easily understand derivation with respect to the suitable relation between these parameters of feature of the material that is used for core and housing.

The reader should be appreciated that the various combination that can use solid core and stiff case material, exports the housing ripple of homophase so that their combinations longways mutually as long as the size of core and housing is determined to be to provide with the reflected sound signal.

Referring to Fig. 2, the another kind that the figure shows the reverberator of Fig. 1 improves.Sound reflector 10 comprises spherical shell 12.Housing 12 surrounds core 16.Housing 12 is made of the rigid material such as GRP (GRP) material or steel.Core 16 is by constituting such as elastomeric solid material.

Be incident upon as shown in the figure on the housing 12 from the sound wave 18 of sound source (not shown) transmission.Select the character of housing in previous described mode, make it present two zones that are provided with around the latitude line of housing, transmission " window " is served as in these two zones, that is, make incident acoustic wave in these zones by transmission effectively by housing 12 and enter in the core 16.Therefore thereby incident acoustic wave is advanced along two paths (19,19 ') when they pass core 16 and is refracted, on the zone 20 of the opposite side of a side that is incided with sound wave 18 that is focused on housing thus.Ripple is reflected along identical path separately and is combined with the reflected sound signal output 22 of the enhancing of cremasteric reflex device then.

For the low zone of incident angle of the incident acoustic wave of housing, a part of incident wave 18 is coupled in the housing 12 and produces elastic waves 26, and this elastic wave 26 is directed in housing 12 around the periphery of housing 12.Be determined in advance in the relative size of the material that forms housing 12 and core 16 and housing and core and make under the identical situation of transmission time of transmission time of housing ripple 26 and the inner echo (19,19 ') of focusing geometrically, pass the elastic wave and the reflected sound signal of housing wall and export homophase each other, therefore the reflected sound signal output 22 (that is, strong target responses) of combination so that another enhancing to be provided longways mutually under target frequency.

Fig. 3 shows the spectral response that is used for two different reverberators, these two different reverberators have and the identical core of the reverberator that is used for Fig. 2 and the outer radius of housing character and 210mm, but the ratio of its inner radial and outer radius has different value (0.942 (thick line) and 0.838 (fine rule) are corresponding with the thickness of shell of 12mm and 34mm respectively).As seen in Figure 3, the reverberator with different housings thickness causes reverberator to have fairly obvious different spectral response.Can obtain another kind of modification by the inner core of change reverberator and/or the material character of shell body.

In Fig. 4, the sound reflector 10 of kind shown in Figure 2 comprises the housing 12 that has as shown in Figure 2 and the spheroid of the core 16 made by resilient material.The Outboard Sections 25 of housing crust is covered with acoustical material 28.This material can be a scope from any to such as the multiple acoustical material of the more advanced material that is used for applying submarine of polystyrene foam, syntactic foam and rubber.Between the section of acoustical material 28, limit the slit or the window 29 that are arranged in housing, as described in reference Fig. 1 and 2, by this slit or window 29, incident sound signal 18 will be transmitted to core 16 and center on housing itself.Between window 29, because acoustical material 28 makes part 25 intercept the incident sound signal basically, therefore the signal reflex of directed section 25 will not take place.

In Fig. 5, the device of Fig. 4 has as rule section 28 and is arranged in the lip-deep sound reflection material of reverberator and motor 30 rotations that utilization is connected to its central axis 32.Section 28 is around central axis 32.In this case,, then will cause rotation if narrow beam sound wave 18 impacts on reverberator, from reverberator 10 obtain intermittently or " flicker " acoustic reflection ripple 22.The rotational speed of the size of slit or window 29 and reverberator 10 and the repetition frequency of sonar characterize the character (identical with the mode of flashing light in the beacon) of emitting sound wave 22.If obviously the speed of rotation and the repetition frequency of sonar are synchronous, then will not have what reflection.Flicker rate can be used for discerning relevant concrete reverberator.

Fig. 6 illustrates the device of the figure that is similar to Fig. 5, but under the situation of this Fig. 6, reverberator is rotatably installed on the pivot 36.Be installed on the central axis but the fin 34 relative with pivot 36 works by undercurrent 38 so that reverberator rotates.This device can be used to orientation, but the variation of flow velocity may make the correct identification of relevant reverberator not too reliable.On the contrary, this device can be used to provide the information about flow velocity, particularly when these flow velocitys to action under water or safety when most important.

In Fig. 7, by reverberator 10 being constructed with the output that the housing 12 that is made of the thickness that changes obtains to be similar to the device of Fig. 4.In this case, housing 12 has the

zone

34,36,38 of three different-thickness, and these zones are set at (74 and 74 ', 76 and 76 ', 78 and 78 ') around the enclosure interior in relative right mode.This causes depending on the different spectrum behavior (see figure 3)s of the part that incident acoustic wave affacted of housing.For example regional 74 blocking parts that can form to some frequency, however it will be a window for other frequencies, and other zone is similar.Therefore as seen, can construct the reverberator of the different piece of its middle shell to certain frequency existence reflection.By with the acoustic waveform of wide bandwidth inquiry reverberator, the sound that is reflected will be the feature in zone of the housing of sonic impinging.Alternatively, by understanding the trizonal response frequency of this reverberator, and combine with narrow bandwidth signal, whether the existence of response will indicate the relative position and the orientation in reverberator and acoustical signal source.Utilize narrow steerable acoustic beam, handle acoustic beam and will provide considerable relative position information to obtain the necessary angle of response.

In Fig. 8, sound reflector 10 comprises right cylinder 80.This post is mounted to motor 30 on the axle line 32 therein.Post itself comprises cylindrical shell 12 and core 16.Have vertical acoustical material bar 28 of series of parallel on the outside surface of housing 12, each bar also is parallel to central axis.This material is an identical type with the material that may be used for the embodiment of Fig. 4.Between acoustical material bar 28, in housing 12, form slit or window 29, can reflect incident acoustic wave by this slit or window 29.

In Fig. 9, sound reflector 10 comprises the right cylinder 80 with housing 12.In this case, core 16 comprises layer of

elastomer material

92,94 and 96.Elastomeric material in the layer has different density.The layer 94 of axis that extends through post is with some audio frequency of a transmission and other audio frequency of not transmission.To see that the incident acoustic wave that impacts housing 12 and zones layer 94 adjacency will be reflected by post as previously mentioned when the frequency following time that is in layer 94 response.Yet the sound wave under other frequency will not be reflected.Similarly, the sound wave that impacts in the zone that is positioned at

layer

92 and 96 outside of housing can be reflected or not be reflected, and this depends on that these layers are to the response of correlated frequency and depend on whether sound wave can pass mf band 94.As seen, the elastomeric density by in the core 16 that changes different reverberators can obtain very unique response.By the layer 92 that is positioned at from housing is provided with relative weak reflection with the zone of 96 outsides, but the zone from the surrounding layer 94 of housing is provided with very powerful reflection, this reverberator can provide guidance information once more.By providing sensing whether sound source wish with reverberator or the indication of not pointing to, this is to underwater navigation and directed particularly useful.If, then can obtain in fact to be similar to the sound system of optics landing light based on three different types of reflections that the shell area of inquiring occurs.

In all embodiment that provide, can obtain than the further improved advantage described in UK patented claim, the GB patented claim 0913203.6,0913388.5 and 0917714.8, using other combinations of metal-cored and metal shell or material, thereby reverberator can be operated under the degree of depth bigger as far as possible under the situation than the reverberator of WO2006/075167 and WO2009/122184.

Claims

1. a sound reflector (10), described sound reflector (10) comprises the housing (12) around core (16), the sound wave (18) that at least some parts (29) of described housing can will be incident on the described housing is transmitted in the described core, to be focused and to be reflected by zone (20) from described housing and incident area relative position described sound wave, thereby provide, and the difference of the described part of the described reverberator that is wherein impacted according to incident sound radiation (18) and differentially reflect described incident sound radiation from the reflected sound signal of described reverberator output (22).

2. sound reflector according to claim 1, wherein, described reverberator is the form around the rotary body of central axis.

3. sound reflector according to claim 1 and 2, wherein, the shape of described reverberator is selected from the group that comprises spheroid, right cylinder, right cone or ovoid.

4. according to each the described sound reflector in the claim 1 to 3, this sound reflector is ovoid, the form of spheroid or right cylinder, and has core, described core comprises the material of the compression velocity of wave that has from 840m/s to 1500m/s, and described housing (12) is determined size with respect to described core, make the part of the described sound wave (18) on the some parts be incident on described housing (12) be coupled in the described housing and in described housing, be directed around the periphery of described housing, then by radiation again with described reflected sound signal output mutually longways in conjunction with exporting (22) with the reflected sound signal that enhancing is provided.

5. sound reflector according to claim 4, it is characterized in that, described housing (12) is determined size with respect to described core, make the part of the described sound wave (18) on the part be incident on described housing (12) be coupled in the housing wall and in described housing wall, be directed around the periphery of described housing, then by radiation again with described reflected sound signal output mutually longways in conjunction with exporting (22) with the reflected sound signal that enhancing is provided.

6. according to claim 4 or 5 described sound reflectors, wherein, described core (16) is formed by a plurality of material layers with the compression velocity of wave from 840m/s to 1500m/s, and described layer has different compression velocities of wave.

7. according to each the described sound reflector in the claim 1 to 3, described sound reflector is ovoid, the form of spheroid or right cylinder, it is characterized in that, described sound reflector comprises housing and core, described housing is around described core, and the acoustic wave transmission that described housing can will be incident on this surface of shell arrives in the described core, to be focused and by from described housing and the regional reflex incident area relative position, thereby provide reflected sound signal output from described reverberator, wherein said housing is determined size with respect to described core, make the part be incident on the described sound wave on the housing wall be coupled in the described housing and in described housing, be directed around the periphery of described housing, then by radiation again with described reflected sound signal output combination longways mutually, thereby provide the reflected sound signal output of enhancing, the ratio of the ripple transmission speed in the ripple transmission speed in the wherein said core and the described housing is in the scope of about 3: 1 to 3.2: 1 or its harmonic wave, in " 3: 1 " and " 3.2: 1 " are also included within.

8. according to each the described sound reflector in the claim 4 to 7, wherein, described core is formed by one deck or more multi-layered concentric solid material.

9. according to each the described sound reflector in the aforementioned claim, wherein, the some parts on the surface of described housing (12) is covered by acoustical material (28), and described acoustical material is absorbed in described reverberator otherwise with the incident sound under the frequency of reflection.

10. sound reflector according to claim 9 is characterized in that described acoustical material is a syntactic foam.

11. according to claim 9 or 10 described sound reflectors, this sound reflector comprises right cylinder, wherein said acoustical material is arranged in by the mode with parallel strip on the surface of described post, and these are parallel to the central axis of described post.

12. according to claim 9 or 10 described sound reflectors, this sound reflector comprises spheroid, wherein said acoustical material by the section of one-tenth be arranged on the described spherome surface.

13. according to each the described sound reflector in the aforementioned claim, wherein, the thickness of described housing changes.

14. sound reflector according to claim 13, this sound reflector comprises right cylinder, and wherein the described housing of different-thickness is arranged that by the mode with parallel strip these are parallel to the central axis of described post.

15. sound reflector according to claim 13, this sound reflector comprises spheroid, and wherein the described housing of different-thickness becomes section ground to arrange.

16. according to each the described sound reflector in the aforementioned claim, this sound reflector is arranged to provide height or angle information by analyzing reflected signal.

17. according to each the described sound reflector in the claim 2 to 15, wherein, described reverberator is rotatably installed on the central axis.

18. sound reflector according to claim 17, wherein, described sound reflector is provided with motor so that it rotates around described axis.

19. according to claim 17 or 18 described sound reflectors, wherein, described reflected signal is the feature of described reverberator.

20. sound reflector according to claim 17, wherein, described sound reflector is provided with fin.

21. according to claim 17 or 20 described sound reflectors, wherein, described reflected signal is the feature of placing the environment of described reverberator.

22. one kind basically as the sound reflector of describing hereinbefore with reference to accompanying drawing.