Nonstationary radiation mode of a thin-walled piezoceramic sphere with a correcting electric circuit

A transducer in the form of a water-loaded thin-walled piezoceramic sphere is considered. On the electric side, the transducer is connected to an RL circuit. The pulsed radiation mode of the transducer is studied using the theory of equivalent schemes of piezoelectric transducers and the spectral Fourier transform. For the system under study, the parameters that provide the minimal emitted signal duration are determined for different values of the relative wall thickness of the sphere. The durations and amplitudes of acoustic pulses emitted by the transducer in the presence and absence of the electric circuit are compared.     

Determination of acoustic impedances of multi matching layers for narrowband ultrasonic airborne transducers at frequencies <2.5 MHz - Application of a genetic algorithm

The effective ultrasonic energy radiation into the air of piezoelectric transducers requires using multilayer matching systems with accurately selected acoustic impedances and the thickness of particular layers. One major problem of ultrasonic transducers, radiating acoustic energy into air, is to find the proper acoustic impedances of one or more matching layers. This work aims at developing an original solution to the acoustic impedance mismatch between transducer and air. If the acoustic impedance defences between transducer and air be more, then finding best matching layer(s) is harder. Therefore we consider PZT (lead zirconate titanate piezo electric) transducer and air that has huge acoustic impedance deference. The vibration source energy (PZT), which is used to generate the incident wave, consumes a part of the mechanical energy and converts it to an electrical one in theoretical calculation. After calculating matching layers, we consider the energy source as layer to design a transducer. However, this part of the mechanical energy will be neglected during the mathematical work. This approximation is correct only if the transducer is open-circuit. Since the possibilities of choosing material with required acoustic impedance are limited (the counted values cannot always be realized and applied in practice) it is necessary to correct the differences between theoretical values and the possibilities of practical application of given acoustic impedances. Such a correction can be done by manipulating other parameters of matching layers (e.g. by changing their thickness). The efficiency of the energy transmission from the piezoceramic transducer through different layers with different thickness and different attenuation enabling a compensation of non-ideal real values by changing their thickness was computer analyzed (base on genetic algorithm). Firstly, three theoretical solutions were investigated. Namely, Chebyshev, Desilets and Souquet theories. However, the obtained acoustic impedances do not necessarily correspond to a nowadays available material. Consequently, the values of the acoustic impedances are switched to the nearest values in a large material database. The switched values of the acoustic impedances do not generally give efficient transmission coefficients. Therefore, we proposed, in a second step, the use of a genetic algorithm (GA) to select the best acoustic impedances for matching layers from the material database for a narrow band ultrasonic transducer that work at frequency below the 2.5 MHz by considering attenuation. However this bank is rich, the results get better. So the accuracy of the propose method increase by using a lot of materials with exact data for acoustic impedance and their attenuation, especially in high frequency. This yields highly more efficient transmission coefficient. In fact by using increasing number of layer we can increase our chance to find the best sets of materials with valuable both in acoustic impedance and low attenuation. Precisely, the transmission coefficient is almost equal to unity for the all studied cases. Finally the effect of thickness on transmission coefficient is investigated for different layers. The results showed that the transmission coefficient for air media is a function of thickness and sensitive to it even for small variation in thickness. In fact, the sensitivity increases when the differences of acoustic impedances to be high (difference between PZT and air).     

Pulse signal detection in a focal area of a convergent wave front

Diffraction effects, taking place during nonlinear transformations in inhomogeneous acoustic fields, are experimentally investigated. The case of a convergent spherical wave front propagating in a uniform nonlinear medium, detection of an acoustic field in a focus, and receiving of the detected signal in the region of the initial wave front aperture are considered. A spherical piezoceramic transducer is used in the experiments as a focusing device. Broad-angle “nonlinear scattering” signals have been recorded at the experimental facility where a pulsed mode of focused transducer operation in water is implemented. The dependence of the amplitude of the signal, detected in the focal area, and its shape on the scattering direction, as well as on the distance between the focus and the receiving point, are studied.     

Reduction of the duration of pulses emitted by a thin-walled piezoceramic cylinder with the use of a correcting electric circuit

On the basis of an electric circuit’s analog of a thin-walled cylindrical piezoceramic transducer connected with an electric circuit, the shapes of the pulses emitted into water are calculated. The optimal circuit’s parameters that provide the minimal pulse’s duration are calculated for different values of the cylinder height and relative wall’s thickness. The possibility to considerably reduce the emitted pulse’s duration is demonstrated, and specific results of numerical calculations are presented.     

Extended Piezoceramic Antenna Radiating in a Borehole

We analyze the possibility for obtaining relevant boundary conditions of the diffraction problem of radiation of an extended piezoceramic antenna in a borehole. The method of equivalent electromechanical circuits is used to search for relationships between the characteristics of the antenna and the radiated fields of elastic vibrations. It is shown that the optimal conditions for transfer of acoustic energy from a borehole to a massif in the considered case drastically differ from similar conditions corresponding to ideal boundary conditions. The expressions for the potentials of displacements in the massif are obtained. Experimental data confirming the analytical results are adduced.     

利用激光多普勒测振仪的空气耦合超声声场测量*

进行了空气耦合超声声场测量的实验研究。使用激光多普勒测振仪测量由声波引起的激光路径上的介质折射率变化,进而得到空气和固体材料内部的时域瞬态声压。通过直接测量空耦换能器的辐射声功率,给出对单个空耦换能器灵敏度的直接评价方法。用空耦换能器激励K9玻璃板的漏兰姆波,观测到空气中的直达波和反射波、固体板内和空气中的漏兰姆波,实现了空气和固体中微弱声波的非侵入式实验测量,为空耦换能器的特性评估和空耦检测系统的声场测量提供了实验方法。     

Study on the high power air-coupled ultrasonic compound transducer

The high power air-coupled compound ultrasonic transducer in flexural vibration is studied. The transducer consists of a sandwich longitudinal piezoelectric transducer and a circular thin plate in flexural vibration. The resonance frequency equation and the equivalent circuit of a circular radiator with clamped boundary condition are derived. The resonance frequency equation and the equivalent circuit of the compound transducer are also obtained. The radiated acoustic field of the circular thin plate radiator is analyzed and the directional pattern is calculated. It can be seen that when the vibrational order of the circular thin plate in flexural vibration is increased, the radiated acoustic field becomes complex.     

The transient suppression for piezoelectric ceramic emission transducer

A transient suppression method for piezoelectric ceramic transducer is presented. By adding some special pedestal pulses to the original transmitted signal, the transient effects in the output of the transducer can be just precisely transmission by use of a narrowband transducer. canceled, thereby achieving the broadband The experimental results show that the transient responses of the sinusoid pulses and coded signals are suppressed successfully and the acoustic waveforms radiated into the surrounding water are improved significantly.     

双激励全波长压电陶瓷超声换能器工作特性分析

对由两个半波长夹心式压电陶瓷换能器级联而成的双激励全波长压电陶瓷超声换能器进行了研究,给出了这种换能器优值的相关参量表达式,通过数值计算分析了该换能器的结构和材料参数对其特性的影响。研究结果表明,当两组压电陶瓷堆分别位于各自所在半波长换能器的位移节点,或者在压电陶瓷片数量确定情况下两组压电陶瓷堆的片数相同时,换能器均能得到最大的优值;在相当大的范围内增加压电陶瓷片的数量,换能器的优值稍有降低,但力因子迅速增大;金属块材料对换能器的优值影响甚微。可见双激励全波长换能器能在不明显降低换能器综合性能的情况下有效增加压电陶瓷的体积,因而可大幅提高换能器的功率容量和负载能力,更适用于大功率重负载的场合。      

在线超声检测系统中螺旋线圈换能器的应用*

针对在线车轮超声检测系统的工程应用,研究了圆形螺旋线圈电磁超声换能器由洛伦兹力换能机制在钢中产生的辐射声场。给出了涡流、等效表面力源和辐射声场的计算方法,分析了圆形螺旋线圈换能器在钢试块上的辐射指向性。结果表明,辐射的圆周径向偏振横波为两边瓣中空指向性,对理解圆形螺旋线圈换能器的辐射声场和在重载货车车轮轮辋在线辋裂缺陷检测中的工程应用具有一定的指导意义。     

Operating characteristics analysis of a dual-excited full-wavelength piezoceramic ultrasonic transducer

A dual-excited full-wavelength piezoceramic ultrasonic transducer as a cascade of two half-wavelength sandwich piezoceramic transducers is studied.The relevant parameters' expressions of the figure of merit N for the transducer are derived,and the effects of the structure and material parameters of the transducer on its characteristics are further analyzed by numerical calculation.The results show that when the two piezoceramic stacks are respectively located at the displacement nodes of their own half-wavelength transducers,or the two piezoceramic stacks have the same number of pieces in the case of a certain number of piezoceramic pieces,the figure of merit of the transducer can reach a maximum.With increasing of the number of piezoceramic pieces in a fairly large range,the figure of merit of the transducer slightly decreases,but the force factor of the transducer increases rapidly.The metal materials of the transducer have little effect on its figure of merit.Thus it can be seen that the dual-excited full-wavelength transducer can effectively increase the volumes of the piezoceramic stacks in the case of that the transducer's comprehensive performance has only a little bit of degradation,so it's power capacity and load capability can be dramatically improved,which means the transducer is more suitable for high power and heavy load applications.     

任意阵形水声换能器阵辐射声场计算

本文用边界元的方法计算了阵形任意的水声发射换能器共形阵的辐射声场。在详细研究了边界元方法基本理论的基础上，采用Pro／ENGINEER软件与ANSYS软件相结合来建立换能器阵的边界元模型，再用SYSNOISE软件计算其辐射声场和辐射阻抗。这种声场计算方法可用于发射换能器阵设计阶段对设计结果进行预报。     

Sound radiation from a cylindrical transducer filled with an elastic medium

An approximate method is proposed for calculating the acoustic field produced by a finite-height cylindrical piezoceramic transducer with allowance for the radiation from the ends of its inner volume that is filled with an elastic medium characterized by an arbitrary Poisson’s ratio. Structural features of the transducer (the presence of a sealing compound and an inner baffle) are taken into account. Good agreement is obtained between calculations and experiment for two transducers (a short one with a height-to-radius ratio h/a≈1 and a long one with h/a≈3) whose inner cavities are filled with either water or foam plastic.     

Acoustic Transducer of Turbulent Pressure Fluctuations in a Temperature-Stratified Medium

The operation of an acoustic transducer in a temperature-stratified medium is investigated. The formation of a response of piezoceramic transducers of pressure fluctuations under the action of temperature fluctuations in a working medium on the sensor element is considered. The attenuation of the temperature signal of a pressure transducer in a turbulent boundary layer is calculated numerically. The effect of distortions of the spectral levels of pressure fluctuations detected by a sound transducer in the field of temperature inhomogeneities is investigated for the example of measurements of turbulent pressure fluctuations in a boundary layer during vertical ascent of the device to the surface from a specified depth in a deep sea.     

跑道线圈换能器在铁路重载货车探伤中的应用*

针对在线车轮超声探伤系统的工程应用,研究了跑道线圈电磁超声换能器由洛伦兹力换能机制在钢中产生的辐射声场。根据外磁场和线圈配置,将表面力源近似为非均匀的水平剪切力源,数值计算得到了此力源的辐射声场指向性图,并与实验结果进行比对,结果表明辐射的水平偏振横波具有中间强两侧弱的指向性,对理解跑道形电磁线圈超声换能器的辐射声场和在重载货车车轮辋裂缺陷探伤中的工程应用具有一定的指导意义。     

Analysis of unidirectional broadband piezoelectric spherical shell transducers for underwater acoustics

This paper presents an analytical investigation and experimental verification of the properties of unidirectional broadband piezoelectric acoustic transducers utilizing axisymmetric vibrations of both complete and incomplete spherical piezoelectric shells and is a continuation of a previous paper that presented the electromechanical modal analysis part of the problem [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 130(2), 753-763 (2011)]. The analysis covers the treatment of the acoustic radiation and reception problem by including analysis of the acoustic impedances and diffraction coefficients as a function of geometry and modal excitation as well as providing specific design examples including multimode spherical acoustic transducers with conformal baffles, and transducers made of incomplete shells (e.g., hemispheres and caps) with free circumferential boundary conditions. The energy method is used to obtain equivalent parameters for a multi-contour electromechanical circuit representation of the transducer and to calculate the transducer performance characteristic as sound projectors and as receivers. Experimental results are obtained on representative piezoceramic transducer prototypes and are in good agreement with the analytical results.     

Measurement method of particle concentration and acoustic properties in suspension using a focused ultrasonic impulse radiated from a plano-concave transducer

As a method to measure the concentration and property of a particle suspension, we proposed an ultrasonic measurement method using a plano-concave ultrasonic transducer. To carry out the experiment, we used a focused ultrasonic impulse with a broad frequency bandwidth radiated from the transducer, instead of utilizing continuous waves as in the conventional method. By analyzing the frequency components of the echo returned from the reflector put at the focal region of the transducer in suspension, we measured the concentration, etc., from variations of attenuation in the frequency spectrum. As specimens, we used some substances containing fine particles for which the acoustic properties or sizes are heterogeneous to each other. Specifically, the milk fat included in milk was examined in detail to characterize the best-tasting milk. In conclusion, we determined that the particle concentration and acoustic properties were easily and instantaneously measurable using the frequency spectrum obtained from pulse echoes passed through the specimen liquid, and the plano-concave transducer was advantageous in these measurements.     

Influence of the thickness of multilayer matching systems on the transfer function of ultrasonic airborne transducer

The effective ultrasonic energy radiation into the air of piezoelectric transducers requires using multilayer matching systems with accurately selected acoustic impedances and the thickness of particular layers. This problem is of particular importance in the case of ultrasonic transducers working at a frequency above 1 MHz. Because the possibilities of choosing material with required acoustic impedance are limited (the counted values cannot always be realised and applied in practice) it is necessary to correct the differences between theoretical values and the possibilities of practical application of given acoustic impedances. Such a correction can be done by manipulating other parameters of matching layers (e.g. by changing their thickness). The efficiency of the energy transmission from the piezoceramic transducer through different layers with different thickness enabling a compensation of non-ideal real values by changing their thickness was computer analysed. The result of this analysis is the conclusion that from the technological point of view a layer with defined thickness is easier and faster to produce than elaboration of a new material with required acoustic parameter.     

A dual passive cavitation detector for localized detection of lithotripsy-induced cavitation in vitro

A passive cavitation detector (PCD) identifies cavitation events by sensing acoustic emissions generated by the collapse of bubbles. In this work, a dual passive cavitation detector (dual PCD), consisting of a pair of orthogonal confocal receivers, is described for use in shock wave lithotripsy. Cavitation events are detected by both receivers and can be localized to within 5 mm by the nature of the small intersecting volume of the focal areas of the two receivers in association with a coincidence detection algorithm. A calibration technique, based on the impulse response of the transducer, was employed to estimate radiated pressures at collapse near the bubble. Results are presented for the in vitro cavitation fields of both a clinical and a research electrohydraulic lithotripter. The measured lifetime of the primary growth-and-collapse of the cavitation bubbles increased from 180 to 420 microseconds as the power setting was increased from 12 to 24 kV. The measured lifetime compared well with calculations based on the Gilmore-Akulichev formulation for bubble dynamics. The radiated acoustic pressure 10 mm from the collapsing cavitation bubble was measured to vary from 4 to 16 MPa with increasing power setting; although the trends agreed with calculations, the predicted values were four times larger than measured values. The axial length of the cavitation field correlated well with the 6-dB region of the acoustic field. However, the width of the cavitation field (10 mm) was significantly narrower than the acoustic field (25 mm) as bubbles appeared to be drawn to the acoustic axis during the collapse. The dual PCD also detected signals from "rebounds," secondary and tertiary growth-and-collapse cycles. The measured rebound time did not agree with calculations from the single-bubble model. The rebounds could be fitted to a Rayleigh collapse model by considering the entire bubble cloud as an effective single bubble. The results from the dual PCD agreed well with images from high-speed photography. The results indicate that single-bubble theory is sufficient to model lithotripsy cavitation dynamics up to time of the main collapse, but that upon collapse bubble cloud dynamics becomes important.