The objective of the project is to test the feasibility of using acoustic sensors to detect and monitor divers and to measure their acoustic target strength. The forward looking sonar will be tested in actual conditions or conditions closely resembling these conditions. This project will develop recommendations and design guidelines for an acoustic system which when deployed in the field to detect and monitor potential underwater threats to marine transportation facilities.
Maritime
Acoustical methods have been extensively used to locate, identify, and track objects underwater. Some of these applications include detecting and tracking submarines, marine mammal detection and identification, detection of mines and ship wrecks and identification of the types of sediments in sea bottom. Sonar technology has also been used in bathymetric surveys and bottom imaging of bridge sites. This study is to demonstrate and test a method based on sonar technology to detect and identify swimmers and other potential objects underwater in the vicinity of transportation infrastructure such port facilities and bridges. The underwater environment near these vital facilities is poorly monitored and is a potential route for hostile activities. Acoustics is the most effective tool for monitoring this environment because of sound’s ability to propagate long distance in water. We will use the forward looking sonar technology developed by Farsounder, Inc. for this study. The tests will be carried out at selected bridge locations or at locations closely resembling them. The successful demonstration of this capability will be very significant to monitoring the safety and security of bridges as well as a variety of other water side installations.
1Identify candidate facilities for acoustic testing. If testing is not possible near the actual facilities, locations closely resembling the actual site conditions (mainly water depth) will be selected.
2.Field test using the Farsounder-FS-3 system will be conducted to test whether the sonar is able to detect the presence of objects. Divers will be used as targets and they will be positioned at different ranges, depths and orientations.
3.Preliminary analysis and display will be done on board of the vessel real time. The data will be further analyzed in detail and improvements to the testing methods and signal processing will be explored
4.A second test will be conducted incorporating the lessons learned from the first test case.
5.Develop a target strength model for a SCUBA diver to be used in design of detection sonar for terrorist divers.
Task 1 will be completed in the first month of the project. Planning and setting up the first field study will be done in the second month and the field study. Task 2 and 3 is planned for the third to sixth months. A review of the results will be then done and shortcomings and problems encountered in the first test will be analyzed. This will lead to the second field test which will be conducted in the seventh month. Rest of the project duration will be used to process and study the results, prepare reports, papers and presentations and to formulate the conclusions of the study.
$114,524.67 ($114,525.00 Yearly)
One Graduate Student (Sairajan Sarangapani, Ocean Engineering-Masters student) supported (Tution and Graduate Assistantship)
In this study we investigate the feasibility of using a sonar to detect terrorist divers in the vicinity of transportation infrastructure. We are already utilizing a sonar to identify scour around bridge piers as part of an ongoing research project sponsored by URITC.
The results of this research will be presented as a report to URITC at the end of the study. Findings also will be presented in conferences and published in literature.
This project has great potential as a monitoring tool for the safety and security of bridges, port and harbor facilities and waterfront structures and facilities.
Safety and security, sonar, acoustic monitoring, forward looking sonars, LNG terminals, bridge safety, terrorism.