Name: AGUIRRE, CLIFORD JOHN Course/Section: BSMT II-FOXTROT

LABORATORY ACTIVITY NO.1

TOPIC:
‘’ECHO SOUNDER’’
A type of SONAR called an echo sounder uses sound pulses to travel through water to measure the
depth of the water. SONAR was originally an acronym for SOund Navigation and Ranging. It is possible to
calculate the depth of the water and the current sound speed in the water by measuring the time
between the emission and return of a pulse.

The History
The German scientist Alexander Behm did research to develop a method of detecting icebergs after
the Titanic disaster in 1912. He developed the echo sounding method, which proved to be ineffective
for finding icebergs but an excellent way to gauge the sea's depth. In 1913, Behm filed for a patent on
his creation. Hydropower dams saw significant technological advancements in the 1980s despite the
fact that the first significant attempts to estimate fish biomass were made in the 1960s. Some
analyses produced estimates of fish entrainment rates, fish sizes, and geographical and temporal
distributions by tracking fish passage around-the-clock for more than a year.

The dual-beam approach was developed in the 1970s and allows for immediate assessment of fish
size.

‘’Application of echo-sounding principles to submarine detection during World War II resulted in the
development of equipment to sound all ocean depths.
Echo-sounders are classified into two types; 

 Single-Beam Echo Sounder (SBES)

 Multi-Beam Echo Sounder (MBES)

[Type here] [Type here] [Type here]

What does echo sounding do?

Echo sounding is effectively a special purpose application of sonar used to locate the bottom. Since a
traditional pre-SI unit of water depth was the fathom, an instrument used for determining water depth
sometimes called a fathometer.

What is principle of Echo Sounder operation?

 Echo sounder measures the depth of water by measuring the time for a pulse
of energy to travel to the sea bed and back and work on the principle of
reflection of acoustic energy.
 Short pulse of sound energy is transmitted vertically down from the ship.
 This pulse having been reflected from the sea bottom returns to the ship in
the form of an echo.
 Travel time (t) taken for its return, depends upon the depth of water (d), and
on the velocity of sound (v) through the water.
 Time taken (t ) = (2 x d) / v  or  d =(v x t)/2
 Performance of a sonar system depends on the accuracy with which the
velocity of source propagation is measured.

The velocity of propagation is a function of temperature of water, pressure and

salinity. The velocity is usually taken as 1500 meters/second for sea water at 13°C
and atmospheric pressure.