Measurements of the depth-dependent characteristics of light bulb implosion

Abstract

Impulsive signals generated by the implosion of an incandescent light bulb were measured in shallow water with implosion depths in the range of 10 - 80 m. The received waveform was characterized by successive negative and positive pressure pulses originating from the bubble oscillation process. The time intervals between successive bubble pulses decreased with increasing implosion depth and the peaks of subsequent bubble oscillations dissipated relatively quickly. In this paper, semi-empirical formulas are derived to model the depth-dependent characteristics of the bulb implosion signal, including the time interval between bubble pulses and peak source level. The model predictions are compared with the measured signals and with the results in the literature. Possible causes of the differences in the comparison with previous results are discussed.