Underwater Object Localization using the Spinning Propeller Noise of Ships Based on the Wittekind Model

The purpose of this article is to localize underwater objects based on the noise reflection of the propeller rotation in cavitation mode. In the proposed method, the propeller noise, which plays the role of pings in active sonar, is modeled by the Wittekind method. As such, an echo is continuously received by a vertical and uniform linear hydrophone array due to reflection from the underwater targets. The challenges associated with the underwater channels are simulated by the ocean model in COMSOL. Specifically, to model the propagation of underwater acoustic in this channel, the Helmholtz equation is solved using COMSOL. Finally, localization is performed by comparing the Delay & Sum algorithm and the multiple signal classification (MUSIC) algorithm in MATLAB. According to the simulation results, the proposed method is able to detect the position of the target and the propeller approximately, although the multipath phenomenon causes adverse effects on the results. The narrowband MUSIC algorithm is used in the proposed method at the frequency of the strongest intensity.