Collis, Jon M.Maestas, Joseph T.2015-09-232022-02-032016-09-212022-02-032015https://hdl.handle.net/11124/180542015 Fall.Includes illustrations (some color).Includes bibliographical references.Shock waves in the ocean are able to propagate over hundreds of meters as they slowly decay into linear sound waves. Accurate assessment of shock is therefore necessary to describe acoustic signals originating from high intensity sources which necessitates the use of specialized models that can both accurately describe the shock and be computationally efficient over large domains. There are a number of nonlinear acoustic models in existence, but the principle model for ocean acoustics is the nonlinear progressive wave equation (NPE) [B. E. McDonald et al., JASA 81]. The NPE is a time-domain formulation of Euler's fluid equations designed to model low-angle wave propagation using a wave-following computational domain. However, the current form of the model is not capable of fully describing realistic ocean environments as it can only describe waves in non-dispersive fluid media. In this work, the NPE is adapted to treat physically relevant ocean bottom sediments by accounting for sound absorption and weak elasticity. The accuracy of the model is seen to break down for fully elastic media where shear wave phenomena cannot be overlooked. Additional models, based on finite-volume methods, are developed to treat shock propagation in such environments using high-order Godunov schemes. These models are valid in range-dependent settings and properly describe nonlinear elastodynamic wave propagation, but require additional computing resources.born digitaldoctoral dissertationsengCopyright of the original work is retained by the author.hyperbolic problemparabolic equationsweak shocknonlinear acousticselasticitypropagation modelsTextEmbargo Expires: 09/21/2016