Sonar for Practising Engineers 3e

I needed a text for students which reflected the gritty realities of sonar. This book is by an engineered well steeped in practice and serves very well.

If you are an engineering degree student, then you should find this book a nice 1st-year-level intro into Sonar.I haven't read it all, but what I have read is very clear, and readable.Lots of formulae and steps in equations; plenty of diagrammes and graphs.It's pretty decent as far as academic books go.If I was to suggest anything, it would be to add some electronic circuit diagrammes to build and test some sonar equipment; and some exploration of testing procedure for rudimentary passive and active sonar systems.People who are going to buy this book are likely to be interested in robotic submarines; and in building something for an academic engineering project.A CD might be worth considering with interactive Flash or Java-style animations for consolidating knowledge, like what you get on mathsnet.net or s-cool.co.uk.Perhaps a little section at the end discussing applications, and on cetacean sonar.At the moment this is the only book you can get on the subject; fortunately it's generally a pretty good one.

For a practicing engineer who wants to gain a basic understanding of sonar this book is about the only choice you have. The sonar domain expert at work was rather scathing in his criticism of this book but for me personally it did exactly what it said on the tin. The only better book for the practicing engineer starting out in the sonar world would be Richard Hodges Underwater Acoustics, but that retails at more than twice the price.

This book really is written for practicing engineers. Although the author does explain a lot of the terms used in sonar, the book is not recommended for the absolute beginner.Before reading this book, make sure you have a reasonable grasp of mathematics and physics, because the equations start on page 2.As a software engineer given the task of integrating a beamforming algorithm into a sonar system, this book was very helpful in explaining exactly what I was trying to achieve.

The book is disorganized and poor print quality. Urick is older but it is well written and we'll organized.

I originally bought this book in 2005 as a review in acoustics when I started a new job for a defense contractor after retiring from the US Navy. I found it to be excellent for that purpose. We later started to develop a simulation involving acoustics and I lent it to a software engineer who was totally unfamiliar with this subject. That along with a little coaching from me helped him tremendously in developing code/algorithms for the simulation. Unfortunately years later, he left the company and took the book with him so I am ordering a new copy.

All in all a solid sonar book, but unfortunately comes too short in the basics and gives away potential. For the price a good start, but who hopes more about basics in particular wave dynamics, etc., unfortunately disappointed.

It's ok!!!

Excellent desk reference for needed formulas and acoustic principles review. This book is a great addition to the library of any engineer working in underwater acoustics.