Jie Mao

Progress in developing a device for measuring heat flux from the hydrothermal vent in deep ocean using acoustic method

In this study we develop an acoustic method to measure the temperature and velocity distributions outside the hydrothermal vent in deep-ocean. The objective is to obtain the heat flux from the hydrothermal vent in a non-intrusive way. Acoustic sensors are arranged in multiple layers. On each layer, the 2-D temperature field can be obtained by a method similar to the method used in an acoustic pyrometry typically used in boiler temperature measurement. Then the sound signals are transmitted and received among sensors in different layers to get a velocity field inside the space confined by the sensor frame.