Study on the pressure wave characteristics of bubbles in low frequency, high pressure, and large capacity air guns

<p indent="0mm">With the gradual development of deep-sea exploration, research on high-capacity air guns has become increasingly important. How to reduce high-frequency energy and enhance low-frequency energy is the core issue that urgently needs to be addressed in the design of air guns. In this study, we have established a large-scale low-frequency air gun bubble dynamics model based on the unified equation of bubble dynamics, considering the migration phenomenon of large-scale air gun bubbles. It has been proven that the model’s predictions more closely match the motion patterns of real large-scale air gun bubbles through model comparison. Based on this model, the influence of air gun chamber volume, operating pressure, depth, and reflection coefficient on air gun bubble migration and pressure wave characteristics is investigated. In addition, air gun arrays are commonly used to enhance the energy of pressure waves in deep-sea exploration. In this study, the effects of the spacing between double, triple, and quadruple air guns in air gun arrays, as well as different arrangements on the characteristics of pressure waves of air guns, are studied. The findings of this study may contribute to the design of new high-capacity, low-frequency single air guns and the combined design of air gun arrays.