Seismic sonar sources for buried mine detection

Prior research on seismo-acoustic sonar for detection of buried targets [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103, 2333–2343 (1998)] has continued with examination of various means for exciting interface waves (Rayleigh or Scholte) used to reflect from targets. Several seismic sources were examined for sand beach applications, including vibrating shakers, shaker devices configured to preferentially excite interface waves, linear force actuators, and arrays of shaker sources to create directional interface wave beams. Burial of some plate-like or rod-like portion of the vibrating devices was found to ensure good coupling to the beach. The preferential interface excitation device employed two degrees of freedom to mimic the two components of elliptically polarized interface waves, and was successfully demonstrated. However, it was found that at long ranges, the medium itself created two component interface waves from vibrating source radiations operating with one degree of freedom in the vertical plane. Linear force actuators were functional in this mode. An array of seven vertical shakers was utilized to create interface waves at ranges of 5 m, in the form of directional beams, some 8 deg wide at the half-power points, at frequencies around 100 Hz. Application of these devices for target detection is discussed in the companion paper. [Work sponsored by ONR.]