Direct numerical simulation of acoustic wave propagation in ocean waveguides using a parallel finite volume solver

Numerical simulations based on the Finite Volume Method (FVM) solve the wave equation directly to provide highly accurate predictions of the sound field in ocean waveguides without model simplification and loss of generality. However, the huge computational complexity severely limits the application range of direct numerical solvers for underwater acoustic waves. In this paper, a highly scalable parallel algorithm for solving acoustic models using the cell-centred finite volume method was proposed, and a corresponding direct numerical solver was developed and validated. The paper has three main findings as follows. Firstly, the acoustic solver was implemented based on a generic framework for solving partial differential equations (PDEs), so that more complicated models such as fluid-sound coupling and sound-structure coupling could be easily extended. Secondly, the large spatial scales of underwater sound propagation can be efficiently calculated by parallel computing. Thirdly, our approach demonstrated high computational accuracy and the ability to support complex scenarios. We verify the accuracy and efficiency of the solver through experiments, and prove the solving ability of the solver in large-scale, complex structures and complex configurations.