Design and characterization of immersion ultrasonic transducers for pulsed regime applications

AbstractUltrasonic transducer design is focused to maximize performance in specific applications, usually leading to complex design and expensive construction and assembly. With the aim to overcome this drawback, a general-purpose immersion ultrasonic transducer for pulsed regime applications has been developed. The design of each element of the transducer is described in this paper, wherein materials and geometries for each part have been recommended. A simple theoretical model has been proposed in order to predict the form of the received electric signal in the target transducer. The model is based on the assumption that the piezoelectric element acts as an underdamped oscillator, forced by the acoustic field coming from the propagation medium. Excellent agreement between the experimental measurements and the analytical model is achieved. Electrical impedance measurements reveal negligible differences between the resonance frequency of the active element and that of the assembled transducer. The designe...