Calibration methods and facilities for vector receivers using a laser Doppler vibrometer in the frequency range 20 Hz to 10 kHz

Calibration methods and facilities have been employed to directly obtain sensitivities of an underwater acoustic vector receiver using two methods based on laser Doppler vibrometry. The vector receiver was first calibrated in a standing wave tube over the frequency range 20 Hz to 2 kHz, where the oscillatory velocity of the water-air interface was measured to determine the sound particle velocity at the position of vector receiver based on waveguide theory. In the frequency range 2.5–10 kHz, the vector receiver was calibrated in an anechoic vessel with dimensions of 1.2 m diameter × 1.8 m length using wideband signals, with a laser Doppler vibrometer used to detect the oscillatory motion of a plastic pellicle, which was sufficiently thin to follow the acoustic particle motion. The uncertainties of the calibration using the optical method were estimated to be 0.7–0.8 dB at 95% confidence interval. The calibration results were compared with those obtained using a reciprocity method in a 50 m × 15 m × 10 m water tank and using a comparison method in a standing wave tube, and the largest deviation did not exceed 1.0 dB over the frequency range 20 Hz to 10 kHz.