The octoid modal vector projector

The eight piston octoid transducer is a descendent of the three piston trioid and four piston astroid transducers. These transducers were developed for low frequency underwater sound applications where wide bandwidth and small volume is desirable. Magnified piston motion is achieved through attached leveraged shell action driven by radial piezoelectric stacks. This condition yields magnified piston displacement and lowered Qm through magnified loading on the piezoelectric stacks. The new octoid design concept was implemented on an eight stack power wheel modal transducer. And this new design has been used to significantly reduce the outer diameter for the same response or, alternatively, yield lower frequency response for the same diameter. Finite element model and measured results are presented for the power wheel with and without the octoid leveraging and the octoid transducer is also compared to the previous trioid and astroid transducers.