We present a single-frequency, narrow beam method of acoustical identification and classification of marine bottom sediments. The method is based on the assumption that layers of bottom sediments have fractal structure, which is transferred onto the shape of acoustic echo. Specifically, the fractal dimension of the bottom echo in time domain is combined with backscattering strength and duration of the echo, and used as input to the neural network algorithm. With this method, we determined the sediment type distribution in the Gdansk Bay. Our results show that the proposed method, which involves just three parameters. the fractal dimension, backscattering strength and duration of echo signal, can be used as a useful tool for sediment identification. The accuracy is comparable to other, more complex methods that use larger number of parameters. [References: 21]
展开▼
