Time domain response of a piezoelectric layer.

A number of one-dimensional models have been developed to inform the design of piezoelectric transducers. The majority of these models are in the frequency domain. In this paper, we develop a one-dimensional time-domain model for the mechanical response of a piezoelectric layer. Secondary effects, resulting from feedback between the acoustic and electric variables, are included in the model. Our approach utilizes Green's function for the Helmholtz equation with radiation boundary conditions and the methods of complex analysis. The model predictions are validated by comparison with a finite-difference time-domain numerical simulation of the governing acoustic equations in and outside the layer. This time-domain model enables efficient calculation of the secondary piezoelectric action effects and provides the mechanical response to an arbitrary electrical source.

Demonstration of spiral wave front sonar for active localization.

Spiral wave front sonar is a non-imaging, active sonar technique for remote target localization. It operates by transmitting a reference signal and a spiral signal whose phase varies by 2π over the transducer's azimuthal plane. Range is given by time-of-flight, and azimuthal aspect by computing the phase difference between reference and spiral echoes across a range of frequencies on a single receive channel. In addition, the spectral response of the target is available for classification algorithms. Two prototype spiral sonar systems (spiral transducer array, hydrophone receiver, amplifiers, and data acquisition) are tested in a series of laboratory experiments where fixed targets are tracked as the systems are rotated through 360°. The first prototype system uses an array designed for navigation and communications applications. This system demonstrates aspect errors less than 20° where shadowing of the receive hydrophone is not present. Experiments with a second system, utilizing transducers designed for higher frequency, active sonar applications, are performed in a bistatic scattering configuration. These experiments yielded errors less than 10° after calibration.

Cylindrical heat conduction and structural acoustic models for enclosed fiber array thermophones.

Calculation of the heat loss for thermophone heating elements is a function of their geometry and the thermodynamics of their surroundings. Steady-state behavior is difficult to establish or evaluate as heat is only flowing in one direction in the device. However, for a heating element made from an array of carbon fibers in a planar enclosure, several assumptions can be made, leading to simple solutions of the heat equation. These solutions can be used to more carefully determine the efficiency of thermophones of this geometry. Acoustic response is predicted with the application of a Helmholtz resonator and thin plate structural acoustics models. A laboratory thermophone utilizing a sparse horizontal array of fine (6.7 µm diameter) carbon fibers is designed and tested. Experimental results are compared with the model. The model is also used to examine the optimal array density for maximal efficiency.

A spiral wave front beacon for underwater navigation: transducer prototypes and testing.

Transducers for acoustic beacons which can produce outgoing signals with wave fronts whose horizontal cross sections are circular or spiral are studied experimentally. A remote hydrophone is used to determine its aspect relative to the transducers by comparing the phase of the circular signal to the phase of the spiral signal. The transducers for a "physical-spiral" beacon are made by forming a strip of 1-3 piezocomposite transducer material around either a circular or spiral backing. A "phased-spiral" beacon is made from an array of transducer elements which can be driven either in phase or staggered out of phase so as to produce signals with either a circular or spiral wave front. Measurements are made to study outgoing signals and their usefulness in determining aspect angle. Vertical beam width is also examined and phase corrections applied when the hydrophone is out of the horizontal plane of the beacon. While numerical simulations indicate that the discontinuity in the physical-spiral beacon introduces errors into the measured phase, damping observed at the ends of the piezocomposite material is a more significant source of error. This damping is also reflected in laser Doppler vibrometer measurements of the transducer's surface velocity.

Acoustic propagation from a spiral wave front source in an ocean environment.

A spiral wave front source generates a pressure field that has a phase that depends linearly on the azimuthal angle at which it is measured. This differs from a point source that has a phase that is constant with direction. The spiral wave front source has been developed for use in navigation; however, very little work has been done to model this source in an ocean environment. To this end, the spiral wave front analogue of the acoustic point source is developed and is shown to be related to the point source through a simple transformation. This makes it possible to transform the point source solution in a particular ocean environment into the solution for a spiral source in the same environment. Applications of this transformation are presented for a spiral source near the ocean surface and seafloor as well as for the more general case of propagation in a horizontally stratified waveguide.

Isolating scattering resonances of an air-filled spherical shell using iterative, single-channel time reversal.

Iterative, single-channel time reversal is employed to isolate backscattering resonances of an air-filled spherical shell in a frequency range of 0.5-20 kHz. Numerical simulations of free-field target scattering suggest improved isolation of the dominant target response frequency in the presence of varying levels of stochastic noise, compared to processing returns from a single transmission and also coherent averaging. To test the efficacy of the technique in a realistic littoral environment, monostatic scattering experiments are conducted in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City, Florida. The time reversal technique is applied to returns from a hollow spherical shell target sitting proud on a sandy bottom in 14 m deep water. Distinct resonances in the scattering response of the target are isolated, depending upon the bandwidth of the sonar system utilized.

A spiral wave front beacon for underwater navigation: basic concept and modeling.

A spiral wave front source produces an acoustic field that has a phase that is proportional to the azimuthal angle about the source. The concept of a spiral wave front beacon is developed by combining this source with a reference source that has a phase that is constant with the angle. The phase difference between these sources contains information about the receiver's azimuthal angle relative to the beacon and can be used for underwater navigation. To produce the spiral wave front, two sources are considered: a "physical-spiral" source, which produces the appropriate phase by physically deforming the active element of the source into a spiral, and a "phased-spiral" source, which uses an array of active elements, each driven with the appropriate phase, to produce the spiral wave front. Using finite element techniques, the fields produced by these sources are examined in the context of the spiral wave front beacon, and the advantages of each source are discussed.

Sensing a buried resonant object by single-channel time reversal.

Scaled laboratory experiments are conducted to assess the efficacy of iterative, single-channel time reversal for enhancement of monostatic returns from resonant spheres in the free field and buried in a sediment phantom. Experiments are performed in a water tank using a broad-band piston transducer operating between 0.4 and 1.5 MHz and calibrated using free surface reflections. Solid and hollow metallic spheres, 6.35 mm in diameter, are buried in a consolidation of 128-microm-mean- diameter spherical glass beads. The procedure consists of exciting the target object with a broadband pulse, sampling the return using a finite time window, reversing the signal in time, and using this reversed signal as the source waveform for the next interrogation. Results indicate that the spectrum of the returns rapidly converges to the dominant mode in the backscattering response of the target. Signal-to-noise enhancement of the target echo is demonstrated for a target at several burial depths. Images generated by scanning the transducer over the location of multiple buried targets demonstrate the ability of the technique to distinguish between targets of differing type and to yield an enhancement of different modes within the response of a single target as a function of transducer position and processing bandwidth.