Nonlinear vibro-acoustic technique for landmine detection

The innovative technique for detection of artificial objects, such as mines, pipes, containers, etc., buried in the ground, is developed and tested. The technique does not depend upon the material from which the object is fabricated whether it be metal, plastic, wood, or any other material. It depends upon the fact that a mine is a "shell" whose purpose is to contain explosive materials and associated detonation apparatus. The mine shell is in contact with the soil in which it is buried. The shell is an acoustically compliant article, which compliance is notably different from the compliance of the surrounding soil. This difference is responsible for the mechanically nonlinear behavior of the soil/shell interface making it the detectable entity. Thus for this new technology, the fact that the mine is buried is turned to a detection advantage. Because the technique intrinsically detects buried "shells", it is insensitive to rocks, tree roots, chunks of metal, bricks, etc, which was confirmed experimentally. The paper discusses physical mechanisms of the nonlinear behavior of the soil-mine interface, the results of experimental investigation of the observed nonlinear interaction, and demonstration of landmine detection technique based on the discovered phenomenon.