Monitoring of underwater radiated sound for ships using transfer path analysis model

he signature of a ship is a crucial criterion for the detection and classification of vessels, but also for the contribution to the noise exposure to the environment. Therefore, in many situations an immediate information concerning the acoustic conditions of a ship is required. It should be based on available on-board data.The signal analytic concept of the tranfer path analysis and tranfer path syntheses provides a suitable tool to solve this task. When an appropriate model has been set up, the underwater radiated sound of vessels can be estimated from actual structure-borne sound measurements. This paper describes the experimental method and the modeling. Sensor positions are chosen on the hull and on noise sources of the ship. Data from simultaneous measurements of on-board structure-borne sound and waterborne sound have to be available to derive and calibrate the model. Examples of the realization and application of the method are system studies, troubleshooting and integration into online monitoring systems. Different concepts for the prediction of the acoustic signature (models) are compared. Current work addresses the specifics of ship acoustic applications.