Acoustic characterisation of towing tanks

Large water tanks known as towing tanks, wave basins and cavitation tunnels, are used to determine the performance of ships, boats and submarines at model-scale. They may also be used for noise measurements but suffer from the effects of reverberation, which makes it difficult to capture the free field conditions necessary for complete characterisation of the noise. This paper describes an adapted Image Source Model and its use to understand these reverberation effects. It extends the conventional Image Source Model by the use of spherical wave reflection coefficients at the tank boundaries, in addition to the inclusion of volumetric absorption. Validation of the Image Source Model is undertaken by comparison with published transfer function measurements made in the depressurized wave basin at the Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN). The relative contribution to the tank response from the direct field and free surface is examined. The tank response is found to vary with three frequency-scales (periodicities) resulting from interactions with the free surface and axial modes.