Simulation of underwater acoustics and sediment wave propagation using the Discrete Huygens Modeling (DHM)

The Discrete Huygens Modeling (DHM) is a numerical method that applies the Huygens physical principle to a discretized medium in order to provide time domain results to wave propagation problems. The method was originally developed for electromagnetism applications, but different works have shown that DHM is also a viable and promising approach for the simulation of acoustic problems. The main advantages of the method are its reduced computation cost when compared with other numerical methods and its relatively easy implementation. Despite the great potential of the method, little can be found in the literature about the use of DHM to underwater acoustic problems, and previous work have been limited to acoustic propagation only in the water column. In this work, a simple model of the acoustic field generated in the water column by a monopole was created, and the prediction of transmission, reflection and scattering processes at the interface with the sediment were carried out. A DHM code has been fully implemented allowing the modeling of multiple media. The results obtained with the DHM model were compared with Image Source (IS) and Finite Element (FE) models yielding very good agreement, while the DHM approach proved to be much faster.