The air gun impulsive underwater transducer

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Abstract
We are reporting our experience with the use of high‐pressure guns at many depths to generate impulsive underwater sound in the fundamental frequency range from 10 to 200 Hz. Air guns are not often used outside of seismic exploration, but they have potential as cheap, energetic, impulsive sources of low‐frequency sound. A simple analysis shows that the fundamental frequency of waveforms increases faster with increasing depth than predicted by the Rayleigh–Willis equation. In addition, the acoustical efficiency of air gun sources is found to decrease with increasing depth, falling sharply as the ambient pressure becomes a significant fraction of the initial gun pressure. Experimental waveform and energy source level data verify these analytical results. Finally, data obtained from arrays of air guns are presented. These data demonstrate that air guns may be successfully arrayed and that the internal impedance of the air gun source is high enough that each air gun resembles a constant source strength (volume velocity) source, resulting in more radiated energy than expected from constant energy sources for some spacings.

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