Piezoelectric Single Crystal Property Assessment for Cost-Effective Optimized Naval SONAR Transducers

Single crystal piezoelectric materials offer significant potential benefits to Navy SONAR transducers including higher power, greater bandwidth and greater efficiency. New compositions now offer improved characteristics even under higher temperature and other normally detrimental operating conditions. Transducer designers, however, are limited in their capabilities due to limited information as to the material properties under varying operating conditions of pressure, temperature, and electric field. This proposal offers a unique combination of measurement capability for materials under those conditions, laser vibrometer based surface displacements, and a numerical optimization method tied to a highly accurate finite element program (PZFlex) to ensure consistent, accurate, and reliable material properties. This will allow for linear and nonlinear analysis of Navy SONAR transducer designs quickly and accurately, reducing development costs and ensuring technologically advanced, robust, and reliable SONAR systems.