A Study on Hydrophone Array Design Optimization for Cavitation Tunnel Noise Measurements

This paper proposes a hydrophone array design optimization technique for cavitation tunnel noise measurements. The optimization technique comprises of design parameters, an objective function and an optimization algorithm. The design parameters are defined for circular, spiral and multi-spiral arrays. The objective function is defined so as to consider the mainlobe beamwidth and the maximum sidelobe level simultaneously. A global optimization scheme is applied to the array design using very fast simulated reannealing (VFSR). After applying the optimization technique to arrays respectively, the peak sidelobe level and the mainlobe beamwidth of optimum arrays are analyzed. Finally the array patterns considering multiple reflections in the cavitation tunnel are evaluated to validate the proposed method.