Acoustic source localization techniques are widely applied in underwater detection, seismic monitoring, structural health monitoring, and environmental acoustic sensing. The existing acoustic source localization methods are mostly established based on the assumption of a homogeneous propagation medium. However, in practical application scenarios, the medium through which acoustic waves propagate has varying degrees of randomness, which limits the applicability of localization methods based on the homogeneity assumption. To address the issue of source localization under medium randomness, the commonly used method currently is the acoustic source localization method based on the Gaussian distribution of time difference of arrival (TDOA). Nevertheless, further verification is needed to determine whether TDOA follows a Gaussian distribution under random medium conditions and under what conditions it follows a Gaussian distribution. Therefore, random medium models with different parameter settings is constructed in this study and the acoustic travel-time field is calculated by using the fast marching method combined with Monte Carlo simulations to analyze the statistical characteristics of TDOA under random medium conditions. Experiment results indicate that TDOA does not generally follow a Gaussian distribution under random medium conditions, while it approximately conforms to a Gaussian distribution under near-field conditions with relatively small medium perturbation intensity or large correlation length. This study can provide a theoretical basis for the selection and improvement of practical acoustic source localization methods in practical applications.
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