Experimental investigation of the variance of ground impedance measurments in coastal environments

The purpose of this work is to understand the results obtained with the ANSI/ASA S1.18 standard for outdoor acoustic surface impedance measurements when applied to surfaces with characteristics at or outside the recommended use case. This study is part of a larger effort working to develop a numerical model for long-range atmospheric acoustic transmission loss over coastal areas. Previous studies were done to characterize the relationship between moisture content and effective flow resistivity of sandy shores by conducting acoustic surface impedance measurements following the procedure specified in the ANSI/ASA S1.18. While the standard specifies surface variation of less than 5 cm and at least four measurements per location, this work seeks to understand the consequences of surface variation in natural terrains on the obtained results. These consequences were evaluated by measuring the effective flow resistivity of multiple outdoor surfaces such as uniform grass, raked sandy shores, and undisturbed sandy shores. At every location, 16 measurements were performed in grid pattern. Subsets of the 16 measurements are used to perform an analysis of the variance of the measured flow resistivities collected at locations with different surface characteristics.