Study on the multifrequency Langevin ultrasonic transducer

Langevin ultrasonic transducers are widely used in high-power ultrasonics and underwater sound. In ultrasonic cleaning, a matching metal horn rather than a metal cylinder is used as the radiator in order to enhance the radiating surface and improve the acoustic matching between the transducer and the processed medium. To raise the effect of ultrasonic cleaning, the standing wave in the cleaning tank should be eliminated. One method to eliminate the standing wave in the tank is to use the multifrequency ultrasonic transducer. In this paper, the Langevin ultrasonic horn transducer, with two resonance frequencies, is studied. The transducer consists of two groups of piezoelectric ceramic elements: the back metal cylinder, the middle metal cylinder and the front matching metal horn. The vibrational modes of the transducer are analysed, and resonance frequency equations of the transducer in the half-wave and the all-wave vibrational modes are derived. According to the resonance frequency equations, transducers with two resonance frequencies are designed and made. The resonance frequencies, the effective electromechanical coupling coefficients and the equivalent electric impedances of the transducers are measured. It is shown that the measured resonance frequencies are in good agreement with the computed results, and the transducer can be excited to vibrate at two resonance frequencies, which correspond to the half-wave and the all-wave vibrational modes of the transducer.