THE EFFECT OF BACKING MATERIAL ON THE TRANSMITTING RESPONSE LEVEL AND BANDWIDTH OF A WIDEBAND UNDERWATER TRANSMITTING TRANSDUCER USING 1-3 PIEZOCOMPOSITE MATERIAL

Abstract: Increasing operating depths of autonomous underwater vehicles have necessitated the development of underwater transducers that can operate at a greater depth. This paper investigates the possibility of incorporating rigid backing material into the transducer design to increase its stiffness and depth capability without adversely affecting its wide bandwidth and high transmitting levels. The transducer design under consideration uses 1-3 piezocomposite material, matching layer, coupling layer, stiff backing material (backing plates) and operates at 300 kHz with 200 kHz 6dB bandwidth. Key words: Wideband underwater transmitter, 1-3 piezocomposite, wide bandwidth, acoustic matching layers, backing plates. A