While acoustic scattering by cylinders has applications in various fields (underwater acoustics, medical imaging, and nondestructive testing), the prior models are only suitable for predictions under idealized conditions and do not account for realistic aspects encountered during laboratory and field measurements. This article presents a theoretical model accounting for these realistic effects (spherical spreading and directivity of the incident waves, and oblique insonification) for acoustic scattering by an elastic cylinder insonified by a transceiver.

About thirty-five years ago, I (Jim Lynch, JASA EIC) worked on acoustic scattering from sea ice in the Nordic Seas, so sea ice scattering is a topic that I personally find interesting. One of the harder problems associated with sea ice is to determine its mechanical and acoustic properties over a large area. Upward looking sonars are one very useful technology to do that. Occasional, very expensive upward looking sonar surveys by submarines were employed thirty-five years ago, but these are too costly and hard to arrange to consider as a routine measurement technique. However, in the intervening years, autonomous underwater vehicle technology has developed to the point of being routine, and sonar sensors are commonly part of the sensor suites they carry. In Nick Chotiros’ article, simulations are made of how well such vehicle plus acoustics systems will perform in characterizing sea ice for a survey. Ocean acousticians always dream of having turnkey operations where our robots do the heavy lifting while we sit back and drink coffee, and this article discusses what may be just such a system.