Scale Property Prediction of Typical Multi-Highlight Target Echoes and Its Experimental Validation

For a large-scale underwater target with multiple highlights, it is of great practical significance to explore the scattering echo scale prediction of a high confidence level. In this paper, we followed the acoustic principle of similarity in a simulative echo scale property prediction after constructing a mathematical highlight model. Furthermore, the highlight model was used at an anechoic water tank to predict acoustic scattering properties. In the experimental demonstration, we delved into the time broadening of echoes at various sound angles of incidence as well as the fluctuation and spatial distribution of highlights. The experimental results revealed that the measured fluctuation of highlights greatly matched with the echo scale properties obtained in the simulative prediction. Determining the parameters including amplitude and delay of highlights by sound angle of incidence and distance offered a great way to simulate the scale properties of large underwater targets. After all, this study presents an echo scale property prediction method based on highlight model and provides some engineering guidance for the efficient detection and recognition of large-scale underwater targets.