Finite Element Modeling of Sonar Domes with Noise

for Transducer Arrays in Sea Environment

H.MESTOURI, and A.LOUSSERT
Laboratoire ISEN Brest-département d’instrumentation
Institut Supérieur de l'Électronique et du Numérique
20 rue Cuirassé Bretagne, C.S. 42807
29228 BREST CEDEX 2 FRANCE
Abstract- There are several parameters which affect the dome approach using FEM to analyse the affect of noise in sonar
transmission coefficient, such as type of material and dome performance is proposed. Several sonar dome models are built
thickness. In this paper, a 2D finite element model is constructed to investigate parameters which affect the dome transmission
to analyse the effect of this parameters of an active sonar enclosed coefficient, such as type of material and thickness of the dome,
within a protective dome and mounted beneath a surface ship. A
are constructed. It is shown that, with this method, we will be
several models are built using finite element code ATILA. An
attempt is made in this paper to highlight certain effect of noise in able to reduce these effects by finding numerically the
sonar performance. Different results are available such, optimum sonar domes characteristics which have less impact
underwater directivity patterns, transmitting voltage response on sonar performances while preserving a good sonar
(TVR) and pressure field in water. The obtained results are protection.
discussed and the effects of each parameter are shown.
II. MODELING TOOLS
I. INTRODUCTION
FEM is widely used for the modeling of piezoelectric
Sonar domes are located on the hulls of submarines and transducers [4] [5]. It is a method of transforming a continuum
surface ships, there purpose is to provide a quiet sonar space system to its equivalent discretized system in which the
environment, and to maximize the sonar performance by system is divided into elements. Using the finite element
reducing noises. In the design of sonar domes, both structural method, a structure, containing a piezoelectric part and a solid
and acoustic considerations come into play. The parameters part, immersed in a fluid, is meshed and divided into elements
which affect the dome transmission coefficient are: (a) Type of connected by nodes. The notations are defined in Fig. 2,
material of the dome, (b) Thickness of the dome, (c) Direction electrical and mechanical fields are coupled inside the
of incidence, and (d) Shape or geometry of the dome etc [1]. piezoelectric domain. The solid structure, which includes
Many important issues in sonar design cannot be accurately piezoelectric domain, is in contact with the infinite fluid
studied using analytic method due to the complexity of the domain, through the surface Si.
partial differential equations involved. Finite element method ATILA (Analysis of Transducers by Integrating LAplace
(FEM) is one of the appropriate ways to gain more detailed equations) is a user interactive finite element code originally
information. In recent years, there was an increasing use of developed by many French scientists and engineers during
computer simulations to aid in sonar dome design [2]. 1980s, and is specifically developed for modeling of two or
In this work, we are interested in modeling sonar domes and three dimensional elastic, piezoelectric, magnetostrictive and
finding numerically the optimum sonar dome characteristics. fluid structures [6]. With ATILA, you can perform static,
For this reason several 2D finite element models, using ATILA
code and GiD graphical interface, are constructed. The
geometry of transducer array of active sonar consists of six
active piezoceramic bars resonant at 300 kHz, and developed
for shallow water use (Fig. 1) [3].
In this paper a brief description of the FEM approach,
ATILA code and GiD graphical interface is provided. An

Figure 1. Geometry of the transducer arrays Figure 2. Finite element domain


Figure 3. Automatic meshing of transducer array
modal, harmonic and transient analyses of your active
structures. Different types of materials can be used for the
design of heterogeneous 2D and 3D structures, and multiple
excitation sources (electrical potentials, currents into inductors,
displacements, forces and pressures) can be used at the same
time.
Due to complexity of creating data files of ATILA code, we
used GiD graphical interface to creating data files by defining
geometry we want to study, the materials it is composed, and
constraints. He allows generates an automatic meshing (for
finite elements, finite differences or other methods) and
transfers geometric data [7].
III. SIMULATION AND RESULTS
A 2D finite element model is proposed and developed here
to simulate transducer arrays. The procedure to construct this
model is to use GiD for creating data file; we choose the
geometry (Fig. 1), and physical properties of the materials. The
piezoelectric material used in this work is the P762 ceramic
Figure 4. TVR computed for transducer array
Figure 5. Beam pattern computed for transducer array at 300 kHz
type NAVY I [8]. A 2D plane strain condition is considered,
that imply the absence of strain in the third geometrical
dimension, which physically means a structure with either a
very thin (plane stress) or an infinitely long (plane strain) third
dimension. For this simulation we use harmonic analysis with
loss. A non reflecting boundary condition to the fluid domain
(water) is applied; it creates a limit (not infinite) on the finite
element mesh of the fluid. After choosing quadrilateral finite
element type to describe the region under study, and size of
mesh spacing that is related to the smallest acoustic
wavelength used, GiD allows the use of an automatic mesh
generator which creates node coordinates and element
topologies Fig. 3. Finally, when the data file is created, ATILA
can run, provides a results file and some file containing arrays
for post processing. A graphic display of the directivity
patterns and TVR can be easily obtained graphically. Animated
views of the vibrating structure or of the pressure field in the
fluid are also available on graphic terminals.
The typical center-to-center spacing between transducer
elements is d=λ/2. Usually, these transducers operate at their
resonant frequency. If the resonant frequency is fr=300 kHz,
then the wavelength, is λ=0.5 cm. In order to investigate the
Figure 6. Transducer array design and (1), (2), (3), (4) present noise
directions
 Figure 7. TVR computed for transducer array in presence of noise from
directions (1), (2), (3), and (4).
effect of noises and sonar dome in transducer array
performance, first we evaluate sonar performance by modeling
only transducer array immerged in water (Fig. 3). So, Fig. 4
displays the TVR computed for transducer array at 0° direction
(TVR- 0°), and Fig. 5 presents beam pattern result at 300 kHz.
A. Noise modeling
The modeling of noise plays an important role in the
simulation of sonar systems. There are two important types of
Figure 9. Beam patterns computed for transducer array at 300 kHz, in
presence of three different noise intensities (a) 80 dB, (b) 100 dB, and
(c) 120 dB.
Figure 8. TVR computed for transducer array in presence of three different
noise intensities (a) 80 dB, (b) 100 dB, and (c) 120 dB.
noise which contribute to overall sonar noise model, the self
noise and the ambient noise. While it is somewhat easy to
identify direction of signal transmission and reception, it is
difficult to attribute a particular direction to noise. However,
noise reaches sonar from all directions, for this reason we
applied the same noise source, but each time in a different
direction (see Fig. 6), to show and the noise effect on sonar
performance according to noise directions. The comparison
between TVR computed for transducer array in absence and in
presence of noise according to noise directions is presented in
Fig. 7. As expected, the influence of noise is more important
when it is close to the direction of signal transmission
(direction (1)). In the other hand, as know noise intensity
depend in noise source, for example, a propeller generally
constitutes a major source of intense noise. So, we compared
the effects of three noises from the same direction (direction
(2)) with different intensity. Fig. 8 and Fig. 9 display,
respectively, TVR and beam patterns computed for transducer
array in presence of noise from direction (2) with different
intensities: (a) 80 dB, (b) 100 dB, and (c) 120dB. From
Figure 10. Automatic meshing of transducer array with sonar dome
obtained results we can conclude that generally underwater
sonars are exposed to noise environment that has a
considerable effect on their performance. Therefore, the
optimal solution is to provide a good protection while
preserving a good sonar performance.
B. Dome modeling
In the design of sonar domes, both structural and acoustic
considerations come into play. Since there are several parameters
which affect the dome transmission coefficient, we have built several
dome models to investigate these parameters effects. The sonar dome
model includes water compartment inside the sonar dome, is a half of
sphere of radius Rd=4.6 cm, according to far field radiation and dome
thickness equal to 1mm (Fig. 10).
The first parameter analysed is the type of material, by which the
dome is made should in the first place be acoustically transparent at
the sonar operating frequency. So, we transmitted the same signal in
the case of four different materials, Aluminum, Steel, Glass-
Reinforced-Plastic (GRP) and Carbon fiber. The results of pressure
field in the water, at 300 kHz, are presented in Fig. 11. Comparison of
obtained results shows a poor transmission for Aluminum and Steel,
and strong reflection in water inside sonar dome. In the other side, a
good transmission is obtained for composite materials (GRP and
(a) (b)
(d)
Figure 11. Pressure field in water computed for transducer array: (a) without sonar dome, and with different type of material of the dome: (b)
Aluminum, (c) Steel, (e) Carbon fiber, and (e) GRP.
carbon fiber).
The second parameter investigated, is dome thickness which is
required for high acoustic transparency and thickness required for the
dome to be mechanically strong to overcome the hydrodynamic
forces which are generally encountered at maximum speed of a ship
in all weather conditions and resulting ship motions. In order to
analyse dome thickness effect, we choose the GRP material for the
dome design for its high transmission coefficient and we compared
simulation result for dome thickness equal to 1mm, presented in Fig.
11 (e) and dome thickness equal to 2mm presented in Fig. 12. The
obtained results show that increasing dome thickness involves a low
loss of transmitted energy, so if we chose the dome mechanically
strong, we will lose probably more energy.
The last parameter that we analysed in this work is the size of sonar
dome. In previous simulation the size of the dome was choose
according to far field radiation. So, to show the effect of size of dome
according to near field radiation, we have built a half of sphere dome
of radius R’d=3 cm <Rd , thickness equal 1mm and the material GRP.
Fig. 13 shows pressure field in water for near field radiation.
Comparison between this result (Fig. 13) and far field radiation result
(Fig. 11 (e)), we denote a poor transmitted energy for near field
radiation.
(c)
(e)
 Figure 12. Pressure field in water computed for transducer array with
sonar dome of thickness 2mm.
IV. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have presented a 2D finite element model
of transducer array enclosed within a protective dome and
mounted beneath a surface ship. An attempt to highlight certain
effect of noise in sonar performance has been shown. We have
simulated several sonar dome models to investigate the effects
parameters which affect the dome transmission coefficient. The
simulation results have shown that will be able to reduce these
effects by finding the optimum sonar dome parameters which
have less impact on sonar performances while preserving a
good sonar protection.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Thanks to BREST METROPOLE OCEANE and EUROPE
(FSE) for funding.
REFERENCES
[1] P. K. Chakravorty, and V. Bhujanga Rao, “Some Aspects in the Design
of Sonar domes” Def Sci J, Vol 32, No. 1, pp 47-54, January 1982.
[2] K. D’Souza, S Sett, and W. Jung, “Modeling the Structural and Acoustic
Behavior of a Sonar Dome with ABAQUS” ABAQUS Users’
Conference, 2006.
[3] J.S Bird, S. Asadov, and P. Kraeutner, “Improving arrays for multi-angle
swath bathymetry”, in OCEANS 2003. Proceedings, Vol. 4, pp. 2085 –
2092, Sept 2003.
[4] B. Cugnet, J. Assaad, A-C. Hladky, and F. Haine, “Influence of the
Quarter Wave Matching Layers on the Response of Bar Transducers”,
Proceedings of the IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium, vol. 2, pp 1135-1138,
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[5] S.S. Jarng, “Comparison of Barrel-Stave Sonar Transducer Simulations
Between A Coupled FE-BEM And ATILA”, IEEE Sensors Journal,Vol.
3, Part 3, PP:439-446, Aug. 2003.
[6] Magsoft Corporation, ATILA Finite-Element Code for Piezoelectric and
Magnetostrictive Transducer Modeling Vesion 5.1.1. User’s Manual,
Acoustics Laboratory, Inst. Sup. d’Electron. du Nord, MAGSOFT Co.,
Oct. 1997.
[7] http://www.gid.cimne.upc.es
[8] http://www.quartz.saint-gobain.com
Figure 13. Pressure field in water computed for transducer array with
sonar dome according to near field radiation.
Hind Mestouri was born in Souk Sebt, Morocco,
in 1983. She received the M.Sc (Maitrise) degree
in Telecommunications from the faculty of
sciences and techniques Fez (Morocco) in 2005.
She received the Master’s degree in Signal, Image,
Acoustic, and Optimization from University Paul
Sabatier Toulouse (France) in 2006. She is
presently a PhD student in acoustics at
Instrumentation Laboratory ISEN-Brest, to obtain
doctoral degree from Université Occidentale de
Bretagne Brest (France) in 2009.
Dr. Alain LOUSSERT was born in Paris, France
in 1966. He received the Ph.D. degree in
mechanics and underwater acoustics from
University of Toulon and Var, Toulon, in 1994.
From 1994 to 1995, he worked as Head engineer
of the underwater acoustic branch, in the I2E
company (Electronics and Computing Studies) in
Aix en Provence. Until September, 2001 he was
scientific director of the ERAMER company in La
Seyne / Mer, specialized in the field of the
underwater acoustics for the piezoelectric and
magnetostrictive realization of transducers in the
range (10 Hz to 1 MHz) and of antennas with
customers such as French Marine Laboratory,
DCNS, DGA, IFREMER, EPSHOM, GESMA...
His was formely Head of "Instrumentation and Process Control” Department at
“ISEN Brest”, an engineering school in electronics. His research interests
include underwater acoustics and transducer modelling.
Dr. LOUSSERT became a Member (M) of IEEE in 2005, and a Senior
Member (SM) in 2009.