Vibration Analysis for an Ultrasonic Transducer Coupled with Interior and Exterior Piezoelectric Discs

Abstract

This research deals with an ultrasonic transducer coupled with piezoelectric discs of two types, solid and hollow. The interior solid disc is an exciter and the exterior hollow disc is an ultrasound sensor. The characteristics of the radial and axial vibrations in the axisymmetric motions were investigated theoretically, and verified experimentally. The piezoelectric governing equations were derived theoretically by virtue of mechanical displacements and electric potential, and their solutions produced characteristic equations yielding natural frequencies. The theoretical analysis was enhanced by three-dimensional mode shapes obtained using finite element analysis. The experimental results verified the theoretical analysis. Another experiment showed that the transducer excites ultrasound at the interior disc, and senses it at the exterior disc. The study showed that an ultrasonic transducer coupled with piezoelectric solid and hollow discs could be designed by determining a suitable diameter for each disc.