Modern Methods of Sound Propagation Modeling Based on the Expansion of Acoustic Fields over Normal Modes

Abstract—A review of modern methods of modeling acoustic fields based on their representation as a superposition of normal modes is presented. Most of the described methods are based on an approach to calculating mode amplitudes by solving parabolic equations of various types, both narrow-angle and wide-angle. We also consider two-dimensional methods for calculating acoustic fields, to which the above-mentioned three-dimensional approaches are reduced in the absence of dependence of the field and medium parameters on one of the horizontal coordinates. The computation of both time-harmonic acoustic fields and pulsed sound signals is discussed. A number of numerical examples are considered in which such calculations are performed taking into account three-dimensional sound propagation effects. For the first time within the framework of this approach, the calculation of particle accelerations at the pulse signal reception points, as well as the calculation of the energy density flux of the vector field were performed.