Acoustic wave scattering from a rough seabed over a sediment layer with generalized-exponential density and inverse-square sound speed profiles

This paper considers acoustic plane wave scattering from a rough seabed on a transition sediment layer overlying an elastic sea basement. The transition sediment layer is assumed to be fluid-like, with density and sound speed distributions behaving as generalized-exponential and inverse-square functions, respectively. This specific class of density and sound speed profiles deserves special attentions not only because it is geologically realistic, but also renders analytical solutions to the Helmholtz equation, making it particularly useful in the study of ocean and seabed acoustics. Based upon a boundary perturbation approach, the computational algorithm for the spatial spectrum in terms of the power spectral density of the scattered field has been developed and implemented. The results have shown that, while the coherent field mainly depends upon the gross structure of the seabed roughness, e.g., RMS roughness, the scattered field is significantly affected by the details of the roughness distributions specialized by the roughness power spectrum and the spatial correlation length of the rough surface. The dependence of the power spectral density of the scattered field on the various types of sediment stratifications, including the constant and the k²-linear sound speed distributions, is also included in the analysis.