Relationships of underwater sound pressure and particle velocity in a shipbuilding dock

Underwater sound is characterized: 1. directional particle motion; 2. scalar pressure waves. Theoretically these are related and it is possible to estimate the particle velocity through measurements of pressure (e.g. Filiciotto et al. 2016, Nedelec 2016). However, this relationship assumes that sound propagates as a plane wave; an assumption that is not met in shelf seas or shallow water regions, where a wide range of fish and invertebrate species have been shown to respond to both sound pressure and particle velocity (e.g. Radford et al. 2012). Objectives: This work compares direct measurements of sound pressure level (SPL) and particle velocity generated by experimental pile driving.