Design of the broadband pattern of a cymbal transducer array

Abstract

The cymbal transducer is a miniaturized version of the Class V flextensional transducer. It has low resonant frequency and high output pressure characteristics compared with its size. However, since it has high quality factor and low energy conversion efficiency as well, it is often used as an array rather than single. When used as an array, a big change in the frequency characteristics occurs in comparison with that of the single transducer due to the interaction between constituent transducers. In this study, we designed a pattern of cymbal array with a view to having broadband characteristics. Three transducers having different center frequencies were designed first. The designed cymbal transducers were used to construct all possible patterns of a 3 × 3 planar array. After analyzing frequency characteristics of these patterns, based on the results, we derived the most effective pattern to achieve a higher fractional bandwidth. The derived array pattern showed an improvement of the fractional bandwidth by 24.9 % in comparison with the reference model.