DIVING DEEPER INTO DOLPHIN ECHOLOCATION BEAM FORMATION – 3D ACOUSTIC FIELD PROPAGATION MODELS OF INTERNAL BEAM FORMATION BASED ON IN VIVO COMPUTER TOMOGRAPHY IMAGES

The purpose of this study is to investigate how bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) head tissues’ mechanical properties form the echolocation clicks into a forward-projected echolocation beam. This will be achieved through multi-physical Finite Element Modelling (FEM) of the bottlenose dolphin head, based on world unique in vivo computer tomography (CT) images of a research trained bottlenose dolphin.