1. Technical Field
The field relates to flexural disk transducers and more particularly to a shell or enclosure providing improved efficiency in operation.
2. Description of the Problem
Flexural disk transducers are usually constructed as metal/ceramic bi-laminar (or tri-laminar), vibratile electroacoustic transducers. Early versions were placed in housings in which they were mounted along their perimeters and which included an acoustic shield which left only the central portion of one major transducer surface of the piezoelectric ceramic exposed to the transmission medium such as water or air. This was done due to inner and outer portions of the disk operating out of phase with one another when the disk was operated in its free fundamental resonance mode. Shielding a portion of the disk mitigated destructive interference between the different sections of the disk.
Use of such shields was known to reduce the efficiency of such devices. This loss of efficiency was addressed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,783 which was directed to device for use in air in which the shield or plate was displaced from the transducer surface and sized so that sound produced along the peripheral edge reached a central aperture in phase with sound produced at the center of the device. The plate functioned to introduce a time delay for the sound generated by the peripheral portions of the disk allowing them to be constructively added to vibrations generated in the center of the disk. In this way most of the sound energy produced along one face of a disk could be captured.
Flexural disk transducers have been applied to underwater applications as well, particularly as high frequency acoustical sources. In such applications it has been supported along its edges so that the disk vibrates in a flexural mode similar to the bottom of an oil-can when depressed to force out oil.
A sound generating and propagating device includes a flexural disk transducer having front and reverse major surfaces and a primary resonant frequency of operation. A ring compression chamber is located adjacent a band on the front major surface and a band on the reverse major surface to capture sound generated off either or both bands. First and second waveguides are connected to the ring compression chamber with the first waveguide providing coupling of sound captured from the band on the front major surface to the environment forward along a propagation axis and the second waveguide providing for coupling of sound captured from the band on the reverse major surface forward along the propagation axis.
Understanding of the following description may be enhanced by reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:
The FIGURES illustrate an acoustic transducer assembly 10. Assembly 10 comprises a shell 12 which has a cylindrical section 22 opening outwardly toward one end to define an assembly mouth 24. A perimeter mouth 18 and a center mouth 20 are displaced inwardly from assembly mouth 24 and channel sound into the assembly mouth for constructive summation. Shell 12 may be made of any suitable material such as, but not limited to, aluminum.
Perimeter mouth 18 is defined between an outer phase plug 14 and cylindrical section 22. Center mouth 20 is defined between the outer phase plug 14 and an inner phase plug 16. Referring to
Outer phase plug 14 is nested in the bowl of an open semi-torus formed by section 26 of shell 12. Section 26 has a semi-circular cross section and forms a closed loop extending between the cylindrical section 22 and a base element to inner phase plug 16. A gap is left between the base of the outer phase plug 14 and the inner surface of the section 26 to form a serpentine waveguide 28 for the reverse major surface 50B of the flexural disk 34. The gap between the outer phase plug and the inner phase plug defines a straight waveguide 30 for the front major surface 50A of the flexural disk 34. The throats 29 and 31 (See
A flattened cylindrical cavity 34 which includes compression chamber ring 46 is provided within shell 12. The central portion of cylindrical cavity 34 is defined by a gap between inner phase plug main body 40 (See
Suspended within cylindrical cavity 34 is a flexural disk transducer 36. Flexural disk transducer 36 is supported at its center on a central shaft 42 inserted through a hole through inner phase plug base 32 into inner phase plug main body 40. A screw 56 and ring 58 complete the suspension assembly and a cap 44 closes the hollow central core of the inner phase plug main body 40. Wiring connections to the flexural disk transducer 36 are not shown but are conventional. Sound is generated from both major faces 50A and 50B of the disk transducer 36 but 180 degrees out of phase.
Ring compression chamber 46 captures sound from both major surfaces 50A and 50B (front and reverse) of flexural disk transducer 36. The regions of capture correspond to bands on the major surfaces substantially displaced from the center of the flexural disk transducer 36 and substantially adjacent to the outer perimeter of the disk. Sound generated from one face is 180 degrees out of phase with sound produced from the face opposite.
Referring to
Flexural disk transducer 36 is bolted (See
The highly resonant disk transducer with a selected frequency of resonance matched to several other acoustic elements in the topology. The use of a center pinned transducer matrix where the voltage applied to the transducer excites the wafer to move in a toroid bending function with no dampening of the excited ring transducer outside of the center mounting point. Piston like modes are set up in the resonant crystal which tends to remain linear in acoustic phase around its outer circumference. Transducer acoustic load is harvested from the area of largest peak xmax (piston+/−travel) which is also the area of largest surface square area resulting in efficiency increases as compared to a typical piezoelectric element that is pinned around the outer edge and the acoustic energy is harvested from the center of the wafer the point of highest xmax but also the area of smallest square surface area. Front/back harvested area is coupled to a compression chamber 46 of size to provide good acoustic impedance leverage and an increase in velocity. It is possible to harvest sound energy from just the front or reverse face 50A, 50B.
Compression chamber 46 is coupled to the differential waveguides with the forward waveguide being shorter in length than the waveguide for the reverse major surface by ½ the wave length (or a odd whole number multiple thereof) of the primary resonance of the transducer. This makes the waveguide for the reverse major surface (in the present embodiment the serpentine waveguide 28 serves this function) a time delay or phase adjustment element. The waveguide for the reverse major surface bends its path forward to be summed to the front wave. When the device is operated at its resonant frequency sound passing through the two waveguides arrives in phase for wave summing and coherent in-phase acoustic propagation. There exists an option to mis-tune the rear wave to front wave at a given frequency to narrow or widen the acoustic beam generated by virtue of phasing the concentric acoustic apertures in a mechanical beam forming. Alternately one of waveguides could contain an adjustable length design (such as a valve or slide arrangement) to allow the end user to mechanically change the effective length of the waveguide relationship between the inner and outer waveguides.