SO N A R

Presented by: Mike Puato & Neil Corpuz

Abstract
Sonar is a modern technology which helps us to track
submarines, fish, ship wrecks, map the seabed and
for other navigational purposes. The four main factors
that affect the performance of a sonar system are a
high power transmitter, an efficient transducer, a
sensitive receiver and an acoustic communication
system. Although the present day sonar systems
have only a limited number of features such as a 2-
dimensional screen and a view of less than 360
degrees of the surrounding, we are most likely to see
better sonar systems with a 3-dimensional screen,
attached to new computer systems along with a 360
degree view of the surrounding in the near future.
 W hat is SO N AR?

SOund Navigation and

Ranging

A sensor that is used to detect

objects through the use of
high or low frequency sound
waves.
H ISTO RY
Although some animals (dolphins and bats) have used
sound for communication and object detection for
millions of years, use by humans in the water is initially
recorded by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1490: a tube inserted
into the water was said to be used to detect vessels by
placing an ear to the tube.
In the 19th century an underwater bell was used as an
ancillary to lighthouses to provide warning of hazards.
The use of sound to 'echo locate' underwater in the
same way as bats use sound for aerial navigation seems
to have been prompted by the Titanic disaster of 1912.
The world's first patent for an underwater echo ranging
device was filed at the British Patent Office by English
meteorologist Lewis Richardson a month after the
sinking of the Titanic, and a German physicist Alexander
Behm obtained a patent for an echo sounder in 1913.
 The Canadian engineer Reginald Fessenden, while
working for the Submarine Signal Company in
Boston, built an experimental system beginning in
1912, a system later tested in Boston Harbor, and
finally in 1914 from the U.S. Revenue (now Coast
Guard) Cutter Miami on the Grand Banks off
Newfoundland Canada. In that test, Fessenden
demonstrated depth sounding, underwater
communications (Morse Code) and echo ranging
(detecting an iceberg at two miles (3 km) range).
The so-called Fessenden oscillator, at ca. 500 Hz
frequency, was unable to determine the bearing of
the berg due to the 3 meter wavelength and the
small dimension of the transducer's radiating face
(less than 1 meter in diameter). The ten Montreal-
built British H class submarines launched in 1915
were equipped with a Fessenden oscillator.
 ASDIC
In 1916, under the British Board of Invention and Research,
Canadian physicist Robert William Boyle took on the active
sound detection project with A B Wood, producing a
prototype for testing in mid 1917. This work, for the Anti-
Submarine Division of the British Naval Staff, was
undertaken in utmost secrecy, and used quartz piezoelectric
crystals to produce the world's first practical underwater
active sound detection apparatus. To maintain secrecy no
mention of sound experimentation or quartz was made - the
word used to describe the early work ('supersonics') was
changed to 'ASD'ics, and the quartz material to 'ASD'ivite:
hence the British acronym ASDIC. In 1939, in response to a
question from the Oxford English Dictionary, the Admiralty
made up the story that it stood for 'Allied Submarine
Detection Investigation Committee', and this is still widely
believed, though no committee bearing this name has been
found in the Admiralty archives.
At the start of World War II, British ASDIC technology
was transferred for free to the United States.
Research on ASDIC and underwater sound was
expanded in the UK and in the US. Many new types of
military sound detection were developed. These
included sonobuoys, first developed by the British in
1944 under the codename High Tea, dipping/dunking
sonar and mine detection sonar. This work formed the
basis for post war developments related to
countering the nuclear submarine. Work on sonar had
also been carried out in the Axis countries, notably in
Germany, which included countermeasures. At the
end of World War II this German work was assimilated
by Britain and the US. Sonars have continued to be
developed by many countries, including Russia, for
both military and civil uses. In recent years the major
military development has been the increasing interest
in low frequency active systems.
 During the 1930s American engineers
developed their own underwater sound
detection technology and important
discoveries were made, such as
thermoclines, that would help future
development.[8] After technical information
was exchanged between the two countries
during the Second World War, Americans
began to use the term SONAR for their
systems, coined as the equivalent of RADAR.
Frequency

192 kHz 50 kHz

Shallower depths Deeper depths

Narrow cone angle Wide cone angle
Better definition Less definition and
and target target separation
separation More noise
Less noise susceptibility
susceptibility
Types ofSO N AR system

Active sonar systems

Generally an acoustic projector is
used in these systems to generate a
sound wave that spreads outwards,
which is reflected back by the target
object. The projector may be placed
on a floating sonobuoy, attached to a
vessels hull, or suspended in the sea
by a line lowered from a helicopter.
Passive sonar systems
These are usually mounted on a ships hull,
deployed from a sonobuoy, towed behind a
ship or laid on the ocean floor to monitor
sound continuously. Passive sonar systems
consists of a receiver that pick up the noise
produced by an object such as ship or a
submarine. The sound waves are analysed
to identify the type of ship and to
determine its direction, speed and
distance.
Acoustic communication
systems
Acoustic communication systems
require a projector and a receiver
at both ends of the acoustic path.
These systems enable ships to
communicate with submarines or
divers.
The same principle allows dolphins
to communicate among their own
Applications

Submarine and mine detection

Commercial fishing
Diving safety
Communication at sea
Used to detect icebergs
Water depth
Locate sunken ships/or other historical objects
Locate fish or track animals that are being
studied
Mapping underwater features
 W ho else uses sonar
Actually nobody but animals use
echolocation and that is actually where
we learned the technique
Bats, whales, and dolphins are some of
the best known animals to use
echolocation
H ow does SO N AR w ork
Sound Properties

Sound travels (slower than EMR) at

4,800 fps or 1460 meters per second
we will use 1500 mps.
(in elastic mediums - air, water, or
earth NOT in a vacuum)
Sound waves are measured in hertz
(Hz). The human ear can detect
frequencies ranging from 20 Hz to
20,000 Hz.
 Sonar N oise
The sound-listening problem for the
operator consists primarily of
learning to distinguish between :

(1) sounds emitted by another ship's machinery

through the hull and from the propeller

(2) the multitude of other sounds that exist in

the ocean.
Sonar N oise
 Sound wave sent outward:
Animals noises made with their
bodies, seismic explosions or
impact plates, ultrasound
transducer converts sound to
electricity and back, ships
ping or emit a burst of acoustic
energy.

Sound waves returned: Animals

waves sensed through ears
(bats) or teeth and bones
(whales), seismic waves sensed
through geo-phones, ships
waves sensed by hydrophones
or.
 Any listening system that consist
of
(1) a hydrophone
(2) an electronic receiver
(3) a bearing indicator
(4) a speaker or headphones.
Theoreticalequation

d = s x (t/2)
Time it takes half of the time to go
down and half to return

Speed approximately 1500 m/s

through seawater at 13c

Distance
N avigation and Ranging Issues
Depth is determined by dividing travel time of sound
by 2 and then multiplying by 1500 mps
12 seconds travel time
12/2 = 6X1500 = 9000 meters deep
The Doppler principle applicable to all wave motion
was developed by the Austrian physicist, Christian
Doppler (1803-1853).
Frequency of sound appears to increase when an
observer moves toward a source and appears to
decrease when he moves away from it. Similarly, if
the source is moving toward the observer, the
frequency is higher; if the source is moving away
from the observer, it is lower.
H ow a m ap is m ade
A Sonar echo recorder is dragged
behind a ship and is called a towfish
It sends out a ping sound travels to
the bottom and is reflected back to the
hydrophone
An instrument on the ship collects and
analyzes the data
These points of data are combined to
create a picture of the seafloor
A ship must travel over the area that is
being studied multiple times this is
called mowing the grass
Sea floor off of L.A. A mosaic
map
Types ofIm aging Sonar
Side-Scan Sonar Systems
Used for mapping the sea
floor for nautical charts,
bathymetric maps, maritime
archeology, and surveys.
The intensity of the acoustic
reflections from the seafloor
of this fan-shaped beam is
recorded in a series of cross-track
slices. When stitched together along the direction
of motion, these slices form an image of the sea
bottom within the swath (coverage width) of the
beam.
Side-Scan Sonar System s
The sound frequencies used in side-scan sonar
usually range from 100 to 500 kHz; higher
frequencies yield better resolution but less
range.

Notice that the volcano casts a shadow to the left, and

the slope facing to the right is very bright. Smaller
bumps also cast small shadows making the
topography look lumpy. Each image is 3 km (1.8
miles) wide.
Single-beam Sonar System s
Single beam sonar data are collected along
transect lines and typically cannot provide
continuous coverage of the seafloor. The output
resolution of the data are determined by the
footprint size, sampling interval, sampling speed,
and distance between transects.
Used primarily for mapping channels and
bathymetry for
hydrologic and engineering applications.
M ulti-beam Sonar System s
Instead of just one transducer pointing down, multibeam
bathymetry systems have arrays of 12 kHz transducers,
sometimes up to 120 of them, arranged in a precise
geometric pattern on ships hulls.
The swath of sound they send out covers a distance on
either side of the ship that is equal to about two times the
water depth. The sound bounces off the seafloor at
different angles and is received by the ship at slightly
different times.
the signals are then processed by computers
on board the ship, converted into water depths, and
automatically plotted as a bathymetric map
with an accuracy of about 5 meters to less than
a meter with differential GPS.
M ulti-beam Sonar System s