Effect of structural parameters and stability of constituent materials on the performance of 1–3 spherical crown piezocomposite and transducer

Abstract

Transducer is the main instrument for signal transmitting and receiving. As the core component of the transducer, the preparation and performance of piezocomposite directly affect the efficiency of the transducer. The novel 1–3 spherical crown piezocomposites with resonance frequency higher than 320 kHz was prepared via arrangement-casting technique. And the effect of structure parameters on properties of piezocomposite was studied in this paper. The results showed that PZT aspect ratio had a significant effect on the resonance frequency of the piezocomposite. Resonance frequency varied from 322 kHz to 457 kHz as the PZT aspect ratio increased from 0.57 to 0.74. While resonance frequency slightly increased from 347 kHz to 368 kHz as the PZT volume fraction varied from 27.0% to 70.6%. Resonance frequency of piezocomposites were merely dependent on the temperature varying from −20 °C to 60 °C, revealing a great thermal stability. The -3 dB opening angle of the transducer was respectively 42° and 39° in horizontal and vertical directions. And the increasing PZT volume fraction was beneficial for enhancing the peak value of transmitting voltage response from 157 dB to 164 dB with -3 dB bandwidth of 42 kHz.