Abstract
Tonpilz transducers are desirable for their superior performance in underwater target detection and communication applications. Several design schemes to widen their bandwidth have been reported, but these schemes often involve a complex structure or arrangement of additional components. In this study, a simple design is proposed to improve the bandwidth of a multimode Tonpilz transducer by using a non-uniform drive section that consists of piezoelectric stacks of various thicknesses. The efficacy of the design is illustrated with a multimode Tonpilz transducer having three lead zirconate titanate (PZT) stacks of different thicknesses. A new equivalent circuit was developed to analyze the frequency response of the transducer incorporating the non-uniform drive section and was used for rigorous analysis of the effects of varying the position and thickness of the non-uniform stacks on the transmitting characteristics of the transducer. The validity of the design was verified through the fabrication and characterization of a prototype multimode Tonpilz transducer. The developed structure can be readily extended to an arbitrary number of stacks in the Tonpilz transducer with any number of PZT disks in each stack.
Highlights
Underwater acoustic transducers are used for detecting and tracking submerged objects [1]
This study presents a new simple structural design method to improve the band-width of a multimode Tonpilz transducer by incorporating a drive section with non-uniform piezoceramic stacks
A new equivalent circuit was developed to represent the non-uniform structure of the drive section, where the response of the whole drive section could be determined by superposing the responses of constituent circuits
Summary
Underwater acoustic transducers are used for detecting and tracking submerged objects [1]. Butler et al designed a hybrid magnetostrictive/piezoelectric Tonpilz transducer, which improve coupling coefficient and a wideband doubly resonant response [14]. He et al designed a new structure of the head mass of a Tonpilz transducer with a single hole to obtain a lower mechanical quality factor [15]. A simple method is proposed for improving the transmitting characteristics of a multimode Tonpilz transducer by using a non-uniform drive section. This study presents a new simple structural design method to improve the band-width of a multimode Tonpilz transducer by incorporating a drive section with non-uniform piezoceramic stacks. A prototype multimode Tonpilz transducer of practical interest is fabricated to incorporate the non-uniform drive section and is characterized experimentally to validate the design of the non-uniform structure
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