On the development of a glass fiber composite flextensional transducer

Abstract

The need to minimize size and Weight of resonant, low‐frequency, underwater transducers directs exploiting materials relatively new to transducer technology. Since the electroacoustic characteristics of flextensional transducers are strongly dependent on both elastic modulus and density of the transducer's outer shell, the possibility of having a significant impact on transducer size by use of low density, low sound speed materials occurs. Some of the more attractive materials for this purpose are filament‐wound fiber reinforced epoxies because of their low pc coupled with high strength. An experimental program is being conducted at Sanders, under NOSC support, to develop a low‐frequency, wide‐band, high‐power flextensional transducer using high strength E‐glass/epoxy resin composite shells. This paper is a summary of the design, application, and performance of the first test modules from this program, including both shell strength and electroacoustic data. Extrapolations to other frequencies, bandwidths and depth requirements are also included. [Research supported by contract N000123‐79‐C‐0554.]