Proposal to Develop Multi-Functional Composites for Sensor and ActuatorApplications

摘要

The intent of this research was to develop a procedure to produce piezoelectricfiber composites for use in ultrasound transducers, under water hydrophones and preliminary actuator designs. Ultrasound transducers have been built for a range of frequencies that are equal to the best dice and fill composite transducers but without any lateral wave interference providing clean signals up to 40 MHz. Recently a 20 MHz transducer was built which compared with the best results seen previously. Hydrophones were constructed using ACI's PZT fiber composite transducers which compare favorably with the best commercial units and are an order of magnitude more sensitive than state of the art injection molded transducers. Discussions with Northrop-Grumman are underway for a Phase III effort to develop hydrophone/sonar transducers for the next generation submarine. The first test actuators were constructed using ACI's PZT fiber performance rivalling the best devices available.