Optimizing Mechanical Quality Factor of Cymbal Transducer

In general, high mechanical quality factor ‘Q _m ,’ which is the indication of low loss, is a desired property for transducers. However, low Q _m and wide bandwidth are desired properties for underwater transducer. Therefore, the Q _m values and bandwidth should be optimized to achieve better underwater acoustic performance. Cymbal transducer has the highest figure of merit as a hydrophone and very good performance as a projector. However, Q _m of the standard cymbal transducer is rather high. In this investigation, cavities beneath the endcaps of the cymbal transducer were partially filled with polymeric media to optimize Q _m and bandwidth. All the calculations were performed with ATILA FEM code. Initial results showed that the Q _m of the cymbal transducer can be tuned to the desired value by filling the cavity with beneath the endcaps.

Keywords:

• Flextensional transducer
• cymbal
• mechanical quality factor
• FEM

Acknowledgment

Author would like to thank R. E. Newnham for his valuable discussions and assistance.