Applied Underwater Acoustics

8.5. Sediment Physical Properties

This section discusses sediment physical properties relevant to acoustic–seafloor interaction modeling. These include the statistics of sediment grain size distribution, sediment porosity and bulk density, pore fluid and pore space properties, permeability, grain properties, and descriptors of sediment type. Sediment geoacoustic properties including compressional and shear wave speeds and attenuations and sediment impedance are covered in Section 8.6, followed by a discussion of measurement and statistical characterization of seafloor roughness in Section 8.7, and spatial heterogeneity of seafloor properties in Section 8.8. It should be noted that most techniques used by sedimentary geologists or geotechnical ...