Experimental Validation of Underwater Target Modeling Using k-Wave Toolbox for Acoustical Imaging

Underwater acoustic imaging employs a hydrophone array to reconstruct 2D or 3D images of an ocean bed even in turbid oceanic conditions. However, conducting several underwater experiments using hydrophone arrays is expensive. Therefore, it is important to develop realistic acoustic simulation models that mimic the hydrophone array, oceanic medium, and realistic wave propagation for underwater imaging. Although k-Wave is an open-source acoustic toolbox designed for time-domain simulations of acoustic waves, its potential has not been thoroughly explored within the context of underwater imaging. In this paper, different methods for shallow water and deep water target modeling using k-Wave acoustic toolbox are discussed and experimentally validated. Comparison of acoustic data from the hydrophone array and the k-wave toolbox was performed by comparing the simulated images with the real experimental images. The comparison results demonstrate the feasibility and accuracy of the modeling.