The design and performance analysis of barrel stave projectors

There is growing interest in low-frequency, light-weight sound sources for underwater acoustics research and for potential future sonar applications. A design being studied at DREA is the barrel stave projector, which consists of a piezoceramic cylinder driving a set of annular staves in flexure. An electroelastic finite element model has been used to analyze the linear vibrations and acoustic radiations of projectors having outer diameters of about 8 cm and fundamental resonance frequencies below 1600 Hz in water. Prototype projectors that operate at electroacoustic efficiencies greater than 50% at resonance have been assembled and their measured acoustic properties have been compared to those predicted by the model. In addition, a brief discussion of the model parameters and limitations is given.