Flow-Exposed Conformal Array Acoustic Elements

In response to Navy SBIR 25.2 - Topic N252-098, Image Acoustics proposes a variety of low-profile hydrophones that utilize improved piezoelectric materials for increased system performance. A shock-hardened, flow exposed, modular hydrophone would allow the navy to see cost savings while getting performance improvements. A flow exposed hydrophone is likely to experience high flow noise at max speed for the submarine so methods of reducing flow noise to keep performance at speed will be needed on any proposed hydrophone. Research shows an elastomeric layer can be used to greatly reduce the flow noise created by the pressure pertubations from the turbulent layer flow. Image Acoustics proposes designing a modular, low profile, shock hardened hydrophone that will allow the navy to hull mount the passive array.