Experimental Study on Underwater Cylindrical Acoustic Wave Generated by High-Voltage Pulse Excited Cable

This article presents a method for using a conventional high-voltage cable as a transducer and exciting it with a pulse power supply to generate perfect cylindrical acoustic waves in water. The experimental results prove that the acoustic pulse strictly follows the propagation law of cylindrical waves. There is a slight fluctuation of sound pressure in the direction parallel to the cable and no directivity in the plane perpendicular to the cable. Under excitation energy of 1000 J, the duration of the acoustic pulse generated by a 12-m cable is about 500 μ s, the dominant frequency is around 3000 Hz, the effective source level reaches 195 dB, and the energy conversion efficiency is 0.012%. This method breaks through the traditional mode of forming a line source by combining point sources. The vibration and acoustic radiation along the cable are continuous, and the cylindrical waves are very stable. Based on the comparative analysis of marine single-channel seismic exploration, line source shows the potential to change the traditional method based on point source and spherical wave theory. It provides a new method for simplifying the survey system and improving exploration accuracy.