• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.54 no.5
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• pp.798-807
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• 2021

The directivity characteristics of acoustic transducers for conventional single-beam echo sounders considerably limit the detection of fish-size information in acoustic field surveys. To overcome this limitation, using the split-aperture technique to estimate the direction of arrival of single-echo signals from individual fish distributed within the sound beam represents the most reliable method for fish-size classification. For this purpose, we design and develop a split-beam data acquisition and processing system to obtain fish-size information in conjunction with a 50-kHz single-beam echo sounder. This split-beam data acquisition and processing system consists of a notebook PC, a field-programmable gate array board, an external single-transmitter module with a matching network, and four-channel receiver modules operating at a frequency of 50-kHz. The functionality of the developed split-beam data processor is tested and evaluated. Acoustic measurements in an experimental water tank showed that the developed data acquisition and processing system can be used as a fish-sizing echo sounder to estimate the size distribution of individual fish, although an external single-transmitter module with a matching network is required.

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.413-422
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• 2011

An improved split-beam transducer for a 50 kHz fish-sizing echo sounder was developed. The main objective of this study was to minimize the side lobe level in the beam pattern and the distance between acoustic centers for adjacent transducer quadrants in the geometrical arrangement of array elements while maintaining a given number of transducer elements and beam width. To achieve these goals, a 32-element planar array transducer ($6{\times}6$ array with one element in each corner missing) was designed using the Dolph-Chebyshev shading function to suppress side lobes in the array beam pattern and fabricated by arranging the inter-element spacing to be substantially equal to half the wavelength using the transducer element of 0.4 times the wavelength in diameter. The performance characteristics of this split-beam transducer were evaluated in the experimental water tank of $5m{\times}5m{\times}6m$ (length${\times}$height${\times}$width). In this study, the design goal of the beam width and side lobe level for transmitting a beam pattern was initially set at $21^{\circ}$ and -30 dB, respectively. However, the measured beam width at 3 dB was $21^{\circ}$ in both directions with side lobe levels of -24.7 dB in the horizontal plane and -25.6 dB in the vertical plane. The averaged beam width at -3 dB of the receiving beam patterns for four receiving quadrants was $31.4^{\circ}$. The transmitting voltage response was 161.5 dB (re $1{\mu}Pa$/V at 1 m) at 50.23 kHz with a bandwidth of 2.16 kHz, and the averaged receiving sensitivity for four receiving quadrants was -178.13 dB (re 1 V/${\mu}Pa$) at 49.8 kHz with a bandwidth of 2.64 kHz.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.137-146
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• 2012

Black porgy and fat greenling are commercially important fish species due to the continuously increasing demand in Korea. When estimating acoustically the fish length by a fish sizing echo sounder, it is of crucial importance to know the target strength (TS) to length dependence. In relation to these needs, the target strength experiments for live fishes were conducted in an acrylic salt water tank using two split-beam echo sounders operating at 70 and 120kHz. The target strength under well-controlled laboratory conditions was simultaneously measured with the swimming movement by digital video recording (DVR) system and analyzed as a function of fish length (L) and frequency (or wavelength ${\lambda}$). Equations of the form TS-alog (L)+blog (1)+c were derived for their TS-length dependence. The best fit regression of TS on fork length for black porgy was TS=20.62 log (L, m)-0.62 log (${\lambda}$, m)-30.68 ($r^2$=0.77). The best fit regression of TS on fork length for fat greenling was TS=12.06 log (L, m)-5.85 log (${\lambda}$, m)-22.15 ($r^2$=0.44).

• Korean Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.44 no.4
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• pp.423-430
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• 2011

The most satisfactory split-beam transducer for fish sizing maintains a wide bearing angle region for correct fish tracking without interference from side lobes and lower sensitivity to fish echoes outside of the main lobe region to correctly measure the angular location of free-swimming fishes in the sound beam. To evaluate the performance of an experimentally developed 50 kHz split-beam transducer, the angular location of a target was derived from the electrical phase difference between the resultant signals for the pair of transducer quadrants in the horizontal and vertical planes consisting of 32 transducer elements. The electrical phase difference was calculated by cross-spectral density analysis for the signals from the pair of receiving transducer quadrants, and the directivity correction factor for a developed split-beam transducer was estimated as the fourth-order polynomial of the off-axis beam angle for the angular location of the target. The experimental results demonstrate that the distance between the acoustic centers for the pair of receiving transducer quadrants can be controlled to less than one wavelength by optimization with amplitude-weighting transformers, and a smaller center spacing provides a range of greater angular location for tracking of a fish target. In particular, a side lobe level of -25.2 dB and an intercenter spacing of $0.96\lambda$($\lambda$= wavelength) obtained in this study suggest that the angular location of fish targets distributing within a range of approximately ${\pm}28^{\circ}$ without interference from side lobes can be measured.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.173-183
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• 2010

In a split beam echo sounder, the transducer design needs to have minimal side lobes because the angular position and level of the side lobes establishes the usable signal level and phase angle limits for determining target strength. In order to suppress effectively the generation of unwanted side lobes in the directivity pattern of split beam transducer, the spacing and size of the transducer elements need to be controlled less than half of a wavelength. With this purpose, a 50 kHz tonpilz type transducer with a half-wavelength diameter in relation to the development of a split beam transducer was designed using the equivalent circuit model, and the underwater performance characteristics were measured and analyzed. From the in-air and in-water impedance responses, the measured value of the electro-acoustic conversion efficiency for the designed transducer was 51.6%. A maximum transmitting voltage response (TVR) value of 172.25dB re $1{\mu}Pa/V$ at 1m was achieved at 52.92kHz with a specially designed matching network and the quality factor was 10.3 with the transmitting bandwidth of 5.14kHz. A maximum receiving sensitivity (SRT) of -183.57dB re $1V/{\mu}Pa$ was measured at 51.45kHz and the receiving bandwidth at -3dB was 1.71kHz. These results suggest that the designed tonpilz type transducer can be effectively used in the development of a split beam transducer for a 50kHz fish sizing echo sounder.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.196-213
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• 2001

A split beam ultrasonic transducer operating at a frequency of 70 kHz to use in the fish sizing echo sounder was developed and the acoustic radiation characteristics were experimentally analyzed. The amplitude shading method utilizing the properties of the Chebyshev polynomials was used to obtain side lobe levels below -20 dB and to optimize the relationship between main beam width and side lobe level of the transducer, and the amplitude shading coefficient to each of the elements was achieved by changing the amplitude contribution of elements with 4 weighting transformers embodied in the planar array transducer assembly. The planar array split beam transducer assembly was composed of 36 piezoelectric ceramics (NEPEC N-21, Tokin) of rod type of 10 mm in diameter and 18.7 mm in length of 70 kHz arranged in the rectangular configuration, and the 4 electrical inputs were supplied to the beamformer. A series of impedance measurements were conducted to check the uniformity of the individual quadrants, and also in the configurations of reception and transmission, resonant frequency, and the transmitting and receiving characteristics were measured in the water tank and analyzed, respectively. The results obtained are summarized as follows : 1. Average resonant and antiresonant frequencies of electrical impedance for four quadrants of the split beam transducer in water were 69.8 kHz and 83.0 kHz, respectively. Average electrical impedance for each individual transducer quadrant was 49.2$\Omega$ at resonant frequency and 704.7$\Omega$ at antiresonant frequency. 2. The resonance peak in the transmitting voltage response (TVR) for four quadrants of the split beam transducer was observed all at 70.0 kHz and the value of TVR was all about 165.5 dB re 1 $\mu$Pa/V at 1 m at 70.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz between -3 dB down points. The resonance peak in the receiving sensitivity (SRT) for four combined quadrants (quad LU+LL, quad RU+RL, quad LU+RU, quad LL+RL) of the split beam transducer was observed all at 75.0 kHz and the value of SRT was all about -177.7 dB re 1 V/$\mu$Pa at 75.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz between -3 dB down points. The sum beam transmitting voltage response and receiving senstivity was 175.0 dB re 1$\mu$Pa/V at 1 m at 75.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz, respectively. 3. The sum beam of split beam transducer was approximately circular with a half beam angle of $9.0^\circ$ at -3 dB points all in both axis of the horizontal plane and the vertical plane. The first measured side lobe levels for the sum beam of split beam transducer were -19.7 dB at $22^\circ$ and -19.4 dB at $-26^\circ$ in the horizontal plane, respectively and -20.1 dB at $22^\circ$ and -22.0 dB at $-26^\circ$ in the vertical plane, respectively. 4. The developed split beam transducer was tested to estimate the angular position of the target in the beam through split beam phase measurements, and the beam pattern loss for target strength corrections was measured and analyzed.