Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501

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Defence Technology
journal homepage: www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/defence-technology

An air cavity method for increasing the underwater acoustic targets

strength of corner reflector
Yi Luo*, Xin Chen, Da-wei Xiao, Wu-di Wen, Tao-tao Xie
Dept. of Weaponry Eng, Naval University of Engineering, Wuhan 430033, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In order to improve the underwater acoustic target strength of corner reflectors, according to the
Received 14 May 2019 principle of acoustic impedance mismatch of the boundary layer, the method of using air cavity to in-
Received in revised form crease the underwater acoustic target strength of corner reflectors is proposed. The acoustic reflection
18 August 2019
coefficients of underwater air layer and single layer metal sheet are calculated and compared. The results
Accepted 20 September 2019
show that the reflection coefficient of single layer metal sheet is greatly affected by frequency and
Available online 23 September 2019
incidence angle, and the reflection coefficient of air layer in water is large and little affected by frequency
and incidence angle. On this basis, a new kind of airfilled cavity corner reflector is designed. The acoustic
Keywords:
Underwater corner reflector
scattering characteristics of underwater airfilled cavity corner reflector are calculated cumulatively, and
Acoustic target strength the results are compared with the monolayer metal sheet corner reflector. The simulation results show
Air cavity that the acoustic reflection effect of the airfilled cavity corner reflector is better. In order to verify the
Acoustic impedance mismatch correctness of the method, the test was carried out in the silencing tank. The experimental results show
that the simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results, and the airfilled cavity
can improve on acoustic reflection performance of the underwater corner reflector.
© 2020 China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi
Communications Co. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction monolayer metal corner reflector [3,4]. However, the acoustic

The corner reflector has the advantages of strong reflection
ability, simple structure and convenient use, and its schematic di-
agram is shown in Fig. 1. Three metal plates connected vertically to
each other, and the shape of the metal plate can be triangular,
square, etc. It is usually used to simulate the electromagnetic
reflection characteristics of objects on the ground [1]. Using un-
derwater corner reflector to simulate the acoustic reflection char-
acteristics of warships is a new technical approach to counter active
sonar detection [2,3]. A number of small underwater corner re-
flectors can be used to simulate the acoustic echo bright spots of
warships. For example, the length characteristics of warships are
relatively obvious, and multiple small underwater corner reflectors
can be used in series to simulate the longitudinal acoustic reflection
characteristics of warships.
At present, there is little research on underwater corner
reflector, and the research of underwater corner reflector is mainly
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: luomx@163.com (Y. Luo).
Peer review under responsibility of China Ordnance Society
performance of underwater monolayer metal corner reflectors are
not ideal. The results show that [4], the underwater thin metal plate
corner reflector has small target strength, small scattering width
and strong frequency characteristic. When it is used to simulate the
target strength of warships, the size is too large, which is not
suitable for engineering application.
In order to improve the target strength of underwater corner
reflector, the acoustic impedance between water and reflection
layers should be mismatched. Because of the serious mismatch of
the characteristic impedance between air and water, in this paper,
the method is proposed to improve the acoustic reflection effect of
underwater corner reflector by using underwater air layer.
The underwater corner reflector is a thin-walled structure
immersed in water. When calculating its acoustic scattering char-
acteristics, it is necessary to consider the fluid medium and its
important influence on the vibration of the structure [5,6]. It is an
important trend to solve the acoustic radiation or scattering
problem of underwater elastic target by coupling the indirect
boundary element method with the finite element method [7,8]. In
addition, the corner reflector is a “concave” structure, and the
contribution of multiple scattering waves can not be ignored in the

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2019.09.008
2214-9147/© 2020 China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi Communications Co. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-
ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
494 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of propagation of sound wave through thin plate.

ZZnp  4Z02
A¼
 (1)
ðZ þ 2Z0 Þ Znp þ 2Z0
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of corner reflector. In the formulaula, A is the reflection coefficient; Z is the
impedance of bending vibration of thin plate; Znp is the impedance
of symmetrical vibration of thin plate; Z0 ¼ rc=cosq is the normal
calculation of its scattered sound field [9]. The software SYSNOISE acoustic impedance; r is the density of water; c is the velocity of
will consider the reflection, diffraction and refraction of sound sound in water.
when simulating the acoustics of the target, which is convenient to In fact, for any sheet metal, the Znp is much greater than Z0 in
calculate the scattering acoustics field of concave structure [10]. almost all incident ranges, and the reflection coefficient can be
Therefore, the scattering acoustics field of underwater corner calculated by using an approximate formula that does not consider
reflector is solved by the coupling indirect boundary element the longitudinal wave.
method of finite element method, and the acoustic scattering
characteristics of underwater air cavity corner reflector are simu- Z
A¼ (2)
lated and analyzed by using finite element software ANSYS and Z þ 2Z0
acoustic software SYSNOISE. The scattering characteristics of
monolayer metal plate corner reflector and air cavity corner The impedance of bending vibration Z can be derived from the
reflector are compared and the results are verified by experiments.
vibration equation of thin plate. Owing to Z ¼  iurM h 1 
!
c4H
2. Methods to improve the target strength c4
sin4 q , so

Flat plate is the foundation of underwater corner reflector, and

1
its acoustic reflection coefficient is the main factor that affects the jAj ¼ v
u
ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
8 92 (3)
target strength. u < =
u 2rc
In order to improve the acoustic reflection coefficient of the t1 þ
: M ur h cos q ½1ðc H =cÞ 4
sin
4
q  ;
plate, the acoustic impedance of the plate medium and the acoustic
impedance of water should be mismatched as much as possible.
u Eh
s2 Þr ; rM is the material density; h is
2 2
The acoustic impedance of air layer in water is much smaller than In the formulaula, c4H ¼ 12ð1
M
that of steel plate due to the low density and sound velocity, so the the thickness of the plate; u ¼ 2pf is the frequency of incident
air layer in water can be used as a good antiacoustic medium. The wave; E is the elastic modulus, and s is the Poisson’s ratio of
reflection coefficients of infinite sheet metal and air layer in water material.
are compared respectively. Suppose that: r ¼ 1000 kg/m3; c ¼ 1480 m/s; s ¼ 0.29;
E ¼ 216 GPa; rM ¼ 7800 kg/m3.
Fig. 3 (a) and (b) are reflection coefficient diagram of a thin plate
2.1. Acoustic reflection performance of sheet metal with thickness of 5 mm and 10 mm at full incident angle, respec-
tively. It can be seen that the reflection coefficient of the steel plate
Fig. 2 shows the sound wave propagating through the thin plate. increases with the increase of frequency and decreases with the
h1 is the thickness of the thin plate; p0 ; pt is the incident wave and increase of incidence angle (vertical incidence is 0 ), and the
the transmission wave; pr is the reflected wave, and q is the angle reflection coefficient increases with the increase of thickness.
between the incident wave and the z axis. Therefore, although a certain thickness of steel plate can be used to
When plane wave is incident on a thin plate, two forms of vi- make a corner reflector, its reflection coefficient is greatly affected
bration, namely bending vibration and symmetric vibration, are by the incident angle and frequency, and is very heavy, so it is not
activated. For a plate whose thickness is much smaller than the convenient for engineering application. For example, in order to
acoustic wavelength in a material, it can be regarded as a thin plate ensure good reflection capability, the thickness of the steel plate of
to calculate its reflection coefficient. the corner reflector should reach 10 mm, so that the mass of one
 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501
Fig. 3. Relationship between reflection coefficient of thin steel sheet, frequency and
angle.
Fig. 4. Schematic diagram of propagation of sound wave through air layer.
corner reflector reaches 29.25 kg (the length of side is 0.5 m). For
495
convenient use, the individual mass shall be less than 10 kg.
2.2. Acoustic reflection performance of air layer in water
Fig. 4 shows the propagation of sound waves through the air
layer in water. h is the thickness of the air layer; p0; pt is the incident
wave and transmission wave; pr is the reflection wave; p2 is the
refraction wave; q is the incidence angle; q2 is the refraction angle;
r1 is the density of water; c1 is the velocity of sound in water; r2 is
the density of air, and c2 is the velocity of sound in air. When the
plane wave incident into the air layer, it does not excite the shear
wave, and the reflection coefficient can be deduced. Its reflection
coefficient is
ið1=w  wÞsinP
A¼ (4)
2 cos P  ið1=w þ wÞsinP
In the formulaula, P ¼ k2hcosq2; k2 is the acoustic wave number
in the air, and
vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
u
u c2 r c cos q
cos q2 ¼ t1  21 sin2 q; w ¼ 2 2 ;
c1 r1 c1 cos q2
If the incident angle of a plane wave does not exceed the critical
angle of total internal reflection, P is a real number, so
jð1=w  wÞsinPj
jAj ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (5)
4cos2 P þ ð1=w þ wÞ2 sin2 P
It is considered that when the hydrostatic pressure increases to
scores of atmospheric pressures, the velocity of sound in air very
little change, while the density of air increases in a straight line. In
the given pressure range, the density of water and sound velocity in
water can be approximately considered as constants. Let the air
density be 1.21 kg/m3 and the velocity of sound in air be 343 m/s.
The reflection coefficient of the air layer in the water under
different hydrostatic pressure is calculated according to Eq. (5).
Fig. 5 shows the relationship between the frequency thickness
product and the reflection coefficient of the air layer under different
hydrostatic pressure. It can be seen from the diagram that: (1)
when the static pressure is very small, the reflection coefficient of
Fig. 5. Reflection coefficient of air layer under different static pressure.
496 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501

coefficient increases with the increase of the frequency and inci-

dence angle of the incident wave, and the greater the static pres-
sure is, the more obvious the change is.

2.3. Acoustic reflection performance of air cavities

By comparison, we can see that the underwater acoustic

reflection coefficient of the air layer is larger, so the underwater
acoustic corner reflector can be constructed to improve the target
strength. But the reflection performance of the air layer changes
with the change of static pressure. In order to ensure that the air
layer in water has stable acoustic reflection performance, the air-
filled cavity should be made with pressure proof structure, so that
the air density does not change with the increase of hydrostatic
pressure.
Therefore, the thin metal plate (1 mm thickness) is welded into a
closed airfilled cavity, and a certain number of reinforcement bars
are installed to enhance the strength and compression resistance of
the structure. The profile of the thin steel plate with airfilled cavity
is shown in Fig. 8. Because the surface metal is very thin and the
reflection coefficient is very low, it can almost be used as complete
permeable.
The influence of hydrostatic pressure on air density and sound
velocity is neglected in calculation because of the high pressure
resistance of steel airfilled cavity. Fig. 7 shows the reflection coef-
ficient of the airfilled cavity with thickness of 20 mm at full inci-
dence angle. It can be seen from the figure that the reflection
coefficient of the air layer in almost all the ranges of 5 kHze20 kHz
is 1, which can achieve complete reflection, and there is only a
depression at certain incidence frequency, and the reflection coef-
ficient almost does not change with the incident angle. It can be
seen that the airfilled cavity in water is an ideal antiacoustic
structure because of its large reflection coefficient, stable perfor-
mance and light weight.

3. Calculation method of acoustic scattering for underwater

corner reflector

From the above calculation, it can be seen that the underwater

airfilled cavity plate has the advantages of large reflection coeffi-
cient, little influence of frequency and incidence angle, and can be
used to construct underwater acoustic corner reflector.
The underwater corner reflector is a thin-walled structure
Fig. 6. Reflection coefficient of air layer under different static pressure. immersed in water. The structural finite element coupled fluid in-
direct boundary element method is suitable for solving the acoustic
scattering problem with fluid in and out of the structure. The
the air layer increases rapidly with the increase of the frequency acoustic scattering of underwater acoustic corner reflector is
thickness product of the layer, and the reflection coefficient is fast calculated by this method, and the fluid-solid coupling equation of
approaching to 1; (2) when the static pressure increases, the the method is deduced.
characteristic impedance ratio of air to water increases, and the Suppose the object is in the ideal fluid; Q is any point on the
reflection coefficient of air layer decreases, but the change trend is
slower.
Fig. 6(a) and (b) show the variation of the reflection coefficient
of the air layer with the incident frequency and the incident angle
when the purified water pressure is 10 and 50 standard atmo-
spheric pressure, respectively. Here, the thickness of the air layer at
a standard atmospheric pressure is 20 mm, and only the air layer
thickness and the density linear change are caused when the
pressure is increased.
It can be seen from the diagram that: (1) when the static pres-
sure is small, the reflection coefficient of the air layer with thickness
of 20 mm is almost 1 within the all range of frequency and all
incidence angle; (2) when the static pressure increases, the acoustic
reflection performance of the air layer decreases, and the reflection
Fig. 7. Schematic diagram airfilled cavity.
 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501 497

difference (double layers potential) and the sound pressure

gradient difference (single layer potential) on both sides of the
boundary surface. The Helmhozts integral equation of the direct
boundary element method is applied to both sides of the boundary
surface and the sound pressure of any field point can be obtained by
subtracting the two equations

 


 vG rP ; rQ

pðrP Þ ¼ ∬ G r P ; r Q s r Q 1 ; rQ 2  m rQ 1 ; rQ2 dS
S vnQ
(7)



In the formula, s r Q 1 ; r Q 2 and m r Q 1 ; r Q 2 are the normal
pressure gradient and pressure difference on both sides of the
surface respectively





vp r Q 1 vp rQ 2
s rQ 1 ; rQ 2 ¼ 
vn vn (8)



¼ jru’ v r Q1  v rQ2
Fig. 8. Relationship between reflection coefficient of air layer, frequency and angle.



m rQ 1 ; rQ 2 ¼ p rQ 1  p rQ 2 (9)



In the formula, v r Q 1 and v r Q 2 are the normal velocity on



both sides of the surface respectively; p r Q 1 and p r Q 2 are the
sound pressure on both sides of the surface respectively.
Let the boundary surface satisfy the Neumman condition and
define P on the boundary. The relation between the boundary
condition and the unknown variable is obtained


 
vpðrP Þ vG rP ; rQ
 vG rP ; rQ

¼∬ s rQ 1 ; rQ 2  m rQ 1 ; rQ 2 dS
vnP S vnP vnP vnQ

¼ jru’ vðrP Þ
(10)
In the formula, vðr P Þ is the vibration velocity of point P. When
the boundary surface is discretized, the unknown variables on the
Fig. 9. Geometric relationship of IBEM. surface of the boundary element model can be represented by the
unknown variables and shape functions of the nodes of the model.
According to the variational principle, the general form can be
structural surface S; n is the unit vector of the outer normal of the deduced
point Q; P is any point in space; r P , r Q , r A are vectors from point O
to point P, Q, A respectively. Its diagram is shown in Fig. 9. A x ¼ Fa (11)
According to the wave equation, the Helmholtz equation of In the formula, A is symmetric matrix; x is unknown variable on
direct boundary element method for single frequency scattering

the surface of the boundary element model, that is, s r Q 1 ; r Q 2 or
sound field can be derived.

m rQ 1 ; rQ 2 ; F a is vector function of acoustic excitation.

  For the acoustic scattering problem of underwater elastic tar-

 vG rP ; rQ

∬ p rQ þ ju’ rvn G r P ; rQ dS gets, assuming that the structure damping is zero, in the physical
S vn
coordinate system, the lossless coupling system equations of the
8
>
> pðr P Þ ; P  outside of S finite element structure model and the indirect boundary element
>
> fluid model are as follows
>
> (6)
<
1 2 3
¼ pðr P Þ ; P  in S
>
> 2 02 T   " e#
>
>
> 6 K s  u MS Resf 7 Ue Fs
>
: 4 5 ¼ (12)
0 ; P  inside of S 2
rs u0 Resf
T
A dpe 0


In the formula, p is instantaneous sound pressure; p r q is the In the formula, K s is the stiffness matrix of the structure; M S is

  
sound pressure of point Q ; G r P ; r Q ¼ ejkjrP rQ j =4pr P  r Q , the structural mass matrix; is the element fluid-solid coupling
which is Green’s function; k ¼ u0 =c0 is wavenumbers; u0 is circular matrix; rs is the structural density; U e is the node displacement
frequency; c0 is the velocity of sound in the fluid; P is the density of vector; dpe is the nodal sound pressure variation; F es is the external


the fluid; vn is the normal velocity of the point Q ; p r q is the force matrix on the structural node.
sound pressure at point P. After the unknown variables of the boundary surface are
Indirect boundary element method can be deduced from direct calculated, the sound pressure and intensity at any point in the
boundary element method. In the indirect boundary element space can be solved, and the corresponding target strength can be
method, the unknown variables are the acoustic pressure obtained.
498 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501

jI r jr¼1
TS ¼ 10lg (13)
Ii
In the formula, jI r jr¼1 is the conversion scattering sound in-
tensity of 1 m distance to the center of the target equivalent sound
source; Ii is the incident sound intensity.

4. Simulation and comparison

The scattering sound field of monolayer steel plate corner

reflector and elastic airfilled cavity corner reflector is simulated by
finite element software ANSYS and acoustic software SYSNOISE,
and its scattering characteristics are compared and analyzed.

4.1. Target strength comparison at different frequencies

Fig. 10 is the schematic diagram of plane wave incident to the

dihedral corner reflectors, and l refers to the side length of the
Fig. 11. Target strength of airfilled cavity dihedral reflector and monolayer sheet
dihedral reflector. All the side length of the dihedral reflectors are
dihedral reflector.
1 m. The thickness of the monolayer sheet dihedral reflector is
5 mm、10 mm、20 mm respectively. The thickness of the surface
steel plate of the airfilled cavity dihedral reflector is 1 mm and the wave to the surface of the elastic structure in water and
thickness of the air layer is 20 mm The incident wave is plane wave excited some resonance modes of the structure.
with amplitude A ¼ 1 Pa, and the sound source is 100 m from the (3). For the airfilled cavity corner reflector, when the frequency
target. The simulation satisfies the conditions of far field. The increases, the reflection of corner reflector mirror increases,
analysis frequency is 5 kHze20 kHz, and the field point is located at the target strength increases first and then tends to steady,
the sound source (transceiver and receiver combination), regard- and there is no obvious frequency effect.
less of the structural damping.
According to the above simulation conditions, the target It is obvious that the airfilled cavity corner reflector in water has
strength curves of the airfilled cavity corner reflector and the good acoustic reflection effect and decoupling effect.
monolayer metal plate corner reflector with thickness of
5e10e20 mm are calculated respectively. The simulation results
4.2. Contrast of target strength with different incidence angle
are shown in Fig. 11.
It can be seen from the diagram that:
The triangular thin steel plate corner reflector and triangular
airfilled cavity corner reflector are selected as the research objects.
(1). The target strength of airfilled cavity corner reflector is larger
The strength changes of the corner reflectors are analyzed when
than monolayer metal plate corner reflector;
the acoustic wave is incident from different angles. The schematic
(2). The change curve of target strength of monolayer metal thin
diagram is shown in Fig. 12, and l refers to the side length of the
plate corner reflector has obvious frequency characteristic,
corner reflector (1 m in paper). The thickness of monolayer steel
and the curve varies greatly and minimally with the change
plate corner reflector is 20 mm; the surface steel plate thickness of
of frequency. This is mainly caused by the acoustic incident
airfilled cavity corner reflector is 1 mm, and the thickness of air

Fig. 10. Schematic diagram of plane wave incident on biplanar corner reflector. Fig. 12. Schematic diagram of plane wave incident on trihedral corner reflector.
 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501 499

Fig. 13. Target strength of 4¼ 45 ,q ¼ 0e90 . Fig. 14. Target strength of q ¼ 55 ,4¼ 0e90 . In Figs. 13 and 14, (a) is metal plate corner
reflector and (b) is airfilled cavity corner reflector.

layer is 20 mm. The angle of incidence (4 ¼ 45 , q ¼ 0 e90 , and

q ¼ 55 , 4 ¼ 0 e90 ) are defined respectively. The change of target strength, corrosion resistance and so on; the research of under-
strength in different frequency conditions is observed. The simu- water corner reflector is mainly metal corner reflector, Therefore
lation results are shown in Figs. 13 and 14. the acoustic reflection effect of the corner reflector proposed in this
It can be seen from the diagram that: (1). the target strength paper is compared with that of the metal corner reflector.
curve of the metal steel plate corner reflector fluctuates obviously
with the incident angle, and the acoustic reflection effect is not
good, while the target strength curve of the airfilled cavity corner
5. Test verification
reflector changes gently with the incident angle, and in most of the
incident direction, the target strength is larger than that of the
In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method and
same size steel plate corner reflector, and the acoustic reflection
the correctness of the simulation results, two kinds of triangular
effect is better. (2). the change trend of the target strength of the
corner reflectors are designed and fabricated.
two kinds of corner reflectors is the same in different frequency
conditions, and the larger the frequency is, the greater the target
(1) The corner reflector of thin steel plate is 0.5 m in length and
strength is.
2 mm in thickness;
At present, there is little research on underwater corner
(2) The airfilled cavity corner reflector is 0.5 m in length. Its
reflector. Considering the underwater application environment, the
thickness of the outer layer steel plate is 1 mm, and the
underwater corner reflector should have certain structural
thickness of the inner air layer is 20 mm.
500 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501
Fig. 15. Schematic diagram of trial in anechoic pool.
The sound scattering was tested in a silencing tank. The incident
wave is a CW pulse signal with frequency of 15 kHz and the emis-
sion period is 2 s. In order to obtain the steady state scattering
target strength, the pulse width of the emission signal is set to be
1 ms. The schematic diagram of the experiment is shown in Fig. 15.
The distance from receiver to emitter (that is d1) is 0.5 m and the
distance from receiver to corner reflector (that is d2) is 3 m. The
distance from the emitter to the corner reflector is 6 times that of
the receiver, so the measurement can satisfy the conditions of far
field. The change curve of target strength is measured by direct
method when the incidence angle of sound signal is different
(4 ¼ 45 、q ¼ 0 e90 , and q ¼ 55 、4¼ 0 e90 ), and the measure
is taken every 3 . The test scene is shown in Fig. 16.
The target strength is represented by the acoustic signal voltage
value which is received by the hydrophone:
jI r jr¼1 Ur
TS ¼ 10lg ¼ 20lg
Ii Ui
(14)
Ub d the target strength of the corner reflector is also proved again.
¼ 20lg þ 20lg 2 þ 20lgðd1 þ d2 Þ
Ud d1
In the formula, Ui is the voltage value of incident signal; Ur is the
voltage value of reflection signal and its distance to the center of the
target sound source is 1 m; Ub is the voltage value of target echo
signal; Ud is the voltage value of directness signal.
Fig. 17 is the comparison of the target strength between the
airfilled cavity corner reflector and the monolayer steel plate corner
reflector at the same incidence angle. It can be seen from the
Fig. 16. Scene of trial in anechoic pool.
Fig. 17. Experimental comparison of the target strength.
diagram that the target strength of the airfilled cavity corner
reflector is obviously greater than that of the single layer steel plate
corner reflector in most incident directions. In the vicinity of 18
and 75 , the target strength of the airfilled cavity corner reflector is
smaller than that of the monolayer steel plate corner reflector. After
examination, it is found that the airfilled cavity corner reflector has
machining errors, and the deviation of the three vertical planes is
5 , which leads to the decrease of the target strength. Therefore, the
air layer can increase the target strength of the underwater corner
reflector.
Figs. 18 and 19 are the comparison between the simulation re-
sults of the target strength of the triangular airfilled cavity corner
reflector and the experimental results. It can be seen that two re-
sults are basically the same, thus validating the correctness of the
simulation results. The effectiveness of the air cavity in increasing
There is certain warp between the experimental results and the
simulation results, but within a reasonable range, and the main
reason is the perpendicularity error of the reflector when the
corner reflector is machined.
Fig. 18. Target strength of 4 ¼ 45 , q ¼ 0e90 .
 Y. Luo et al. / Defence Technology 16 (2020) 493e501 501

compared with the thin steel plate corner reflector, and verified by
experiments. The results show that the air layer can effectively
increase the underwater acoustic target strength and improve the
frequency characteristics of the corner reflector.
The structure deformation of underwater airfilled cavity corner
reflector will affect the acoustic reflection performance, which is
not further analyzed in this paper because of the limitation of the
space. In addition, the acoustic scattering characteristics of multi-
grid corner reflectors need further study.

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Fig. 19. Target strength of q ¼ 55 , 4 ¼ 0e90 .
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