Performance analysis of velocity–pressure smoothing for direction‐of‐arrival estimation of coherent signals

In this paper, we consider the problem of direction‐of‐arrival (DOA) estimation of coherent signals by using a number of identically oriented acoustic vector‐sensors, wherein source decorrelation can be achieved by velocity–pressure smoothing. We examine the effect of velocity–pressure smoothing on the performance of MUSIC‐type methods in terms of the overall root mean‐square errors (RMSE) of DOA estimates. The closed‐form expression for the overall RMSE is derived and analyzed. We also compare velocity–pressure smoothing with the conventional spatial smoothing technique. Simulation results are given to confirm the analyses. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.