A novel self-contained in situ sediment acoustic measurement system based on hydraulic driving penetration is proposed to solve the problem of large disturbances to sediments of the in situ equipments already in existence. By using a hydraulic driving device, the system drives four acoustic probes into sediments at an even speed, and this decreases disturbances to sediments introduced by the penetration of acoustic probes. By means of the special design of the central control unit, the system can work full-automatically and the data are stored self-containedly, and this avoids the requirement of real-time remote controlling from the ship. Its operating water depth, measuring depth and measuring frequency is 500m, 1.0m and 30kHz respectively. A set of in situ sound speeds and attenuation coefficients of sediments are obtained at 40 stations using the system. The results confirm that the data obtained by the in situ sediment acoustic system are accurate and credible.
Kan GuangmingLiu BaohuaZhao YuexiaLi GuanbaoPei Yanliang
