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Characteristics of small boat acoustic signatures

Article  in  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · November 2002

DOI: 10.1121/1.4778778

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Martin L. Barlett Gary Wilson

University of Texas at Austin University of Texas at Austin
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 Characteristics of Small Boat Signatures

Martin L. Barlett and Gary R. Wilson

Applied Research Laboratories
The University of Texas at Austin
P. O. Box 8029
Austin, TX 78713-8029

Introduction

Small powerboats (typically planing hulls) are often a dominant underwater noise
source in lakes, harbors, and coastal areas. However, little information has been
published in the literature on the acoustic characteristics of these noise sources. A series
of measurements was recently conducted using various small boats in order to determine
some of the underwater acoustic characteristics of these vessels. The measurements were
performed using a bottom mounted hydrophone and an assortment of outboard, inboard-
outboard, and inboard powered boats to obtain a sampling of possible powerboat
configurations. In the sections that follow, an overview of the experimental setup and
measurements will be presented, followed by results of the analyses of the data sets
obtained during the experiment.

Experimental Measurements

The results presented in this paper were obtained from measurements conducted
over the last year at several different sites. The majority of the data were collected in a
coastal environment using a calibrated HTI-90U hydrophone mounted in a fiberglass
flow shield sitting on a sandy bottom. The water depth at the hydrophone deployment
site was approximately 93 feet. The position of the hydrophone was determined using a
GPS fix when the sensor was deployed. The hydrophone was cabled to a shore based
data acquisition system consisting of a filter/amplifier, a 16 bit analog to digital converter
system, and a laptop computer which controlled the data acquisition system and recorded
the digital data. The acoustic data collection system also recorded Greenwich Mean
Time (GMT) time stamps and 1 pulse per second (PPS) markers from a GPS receiver to
provide accurate timing information.
 For some of the measurements performed with the small boats, a platform
measurement system was installed to provide detailed information on the test boat
operating characteristics. The platform measurement system consisted of a solid state
data logger for recording tachometer inputs as well as GPS position, GMT time, and PPS
markers and in some cases, a hull mounted accelerometer. A typical installation of the
test boat data collection recorder in its watertight case is shown in Fig 1.
Measurements were conducted by allowing the test platform to start a straight line
run at a large standoff distance from the measurement hydrophone. In a typical run, the
test boat would accelerate to the desired engine RPM and then maintain a constant
throttle setting past the measurement hydrophone. Typical horizontal offsets between the
hydrophone and test boat were on the order of 50 to 300 feet, as determined by GPS.

Figure 1. The test boat data recorder and its watertight case are shown for a typical
installation. The data collection system recorded tachometer outputs, GPS position and
time and accelerometer inputs on selected runs.

Data Analysis

Recorded acoustic data from the bottom hydrophone were processed offline to
produce spectrograms of the acoustic signatures. Initial processing was performed
primarily to identify dominant spectral components. Typical processing consisted of
decimation of the original time series data by a factor of 4 to reduce the original 12 kHz
sampling rate to an effective 3 kHz sampling rate. Spectrograms were then computed
using 1024 sample FFTs with flattop windowing, resulting in a spectral resolution of
approximately 2.9 Hz. A typical spectrogram is shown in Fig. 2 for the processing
described above. Several features are observable in the spectrogram and are typical of
short range signatures from small boats. The numerous narrowband components seen in
the spectrogram result from the engine and drive train. In the example shown here, the
majority of the narrowband lines are associated with individual cylinder firings and the
overall engine firing rate. Also prominent in the spectrogram is the broadband energy
associated with the passing boat. The specific origins of the broadband energy are not
known but are speculated to be dominated by propeller cavitation.

Figure 2. A spectrogram of a typical small boat run past the bottom hydrophone is shown
for a rigid hull inflatable boat powered by a 150 horsepower outboard engine.
Frequency is displayed on the horizontal axis while time is shown on the vertical axis.
The colorbar represents the narrowband spectral levels at the bottom hydrophone.

Several other characteristics are observable from the spectrogram. A Lloyd’ s

mirror pattern due to multipath interference in evident in the broadband background.
Also evident are the Doppler shifts in the narrowband components due to the high range
rate of the platform past the bottom hydrophone. Finally, the narrowband lines show
significant dynamics over short time intervals. These variations are believed to arise
from short term loading effects on the powertrain due to waves.
Based on the spectrogram displays, dominant narrowband components were
identified for each run and the spectral levels at the closest point of approach (CPA)
determined for these components. The measured spectral levels were then corrected for
propagation loss due to spreading by accounting for the water depth and horizontal range
offset of the test boat with respect to the bottom hydrophone. For the broadband energy
measurements, the background levels were estimated by removing significant
narrowband components from the spectrum using a two pass, split window background
estimation procedure. The estimated broadband levels were then corrected for the
processing bandwidth and the propagation loss due to spreading to produce broadband
spectral level results for the various test platforms.

Results

Narrowband spectral levels at CPA were extracted for the various test platforms
used in the measurements. For the results presented here, motor operations spanned a
range of 2600 – 6000 RPM. Although the small boat acoustic signatures typically
contain numerous narrowband components, spectral levels were extracted only for the
components which were clearly resolvable from the ambient and broadband energy in the
spectrograms near CPA. Peak source levels (peak measured levels which are corrected
for propagation loss) for the various outboard, inboard-outboard and inboard test boat
measurements are shown in Fig. 3. Results indicate that typical peak narrowband source
levels range between 150 – 165 dB re 1 µPa.

Figure 3. Peak narrowband source levels from a variety of outboard, inboard outboard,
and inboard small boat platforms are shown after correction for propagation loss. The
results shown were obtained from a total of eighteen different runs,
 In the measurements shown here, there was no consistent source (e.g., blade line,
cylinder firing rate, etc.) which could be associated with the peak narrowband levels.
Rather, the sources associated with the peak levels were observed to be platform and
RPM dependent.
In addition to determining peak source levels, the distribution of narrowband
spectral components was determined using the extracted spectral levels from the various
platforms. The results are presented in Fig. 4 for all narrowband components that were
readily distinguished from the ambient/broadband background at CPA. The distribution
results from a total of 254 individual narrowband components over the range of platforms
used in the experiment. In the figure, the horizontal axis displays the estimated
narrowband spectral level while the vertical axis displays the fraction of components that
were determined to exceed a specific level.

Figure 4. The spectral level distribution of narrowband components obtained from the
measurements is shown for narrowband components that were distinguishable from the
background at CPA. The vertical axis displays the fraction of components which exceed
a specific spectral level.

As seen in Fig. 4, the narrowband spectral levels vary significantly, spanning a

range of about 40 dB. The lower limit (~ 125 dB) results from the inability to clearly
distinguish the narrowband spectral components from the continuous background levels
at CPA for the chosen processing resolution. The upper limit of about 165 dB is
reflective of the peak source levels shown in Fig. 3. Based on the measurement results
presented here, the mean source level over all the platforms considered here is
approximately 148 dB.
Broadband energy is also a prominent feature in the spectra of small boats.
Broadband source levels were estimated for the various test platforms over the full
frequency range of the computed spectrograms. An example of broadband source levels
from a high horsepower outboard powerboat as a function of engine RPM is shown in
Fig. 5. As seen from the figure, there is a general trend of increasing broadband source
level with increasing engine RPM. In addition, the data shown in the figure show a peak
in the frequency dependence of the broadband source levels. The measurements also
suggest that the peak may shift to higher frequencies as the engine RPM increases. The
mechanism that produces this structure is undetermined at present.

Figure 5. The broadband source levels for a high horsepower powerboat are shown for
various engine RPMs.

Summary

Small boat acoustic characteristics were measured in a series of tests with various
outboard, inboard outboard, and inboard powerboats. The spectra of these boats exhibit
both significant narrowband and broadband features. Narrowband features are associated
with the operation of the engine and powertrain. Spectral levels of prominent
narrowband components are generally between 125 – 165 dB. Broadband energy is also
prominent in the small boat spectra. The measured levels are generally less than those
 seen in the narrowband components. A dependence of the source level on engine RPM is
observed in the measurements, with higher RPMs producing higher levels of broadband
energy.

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