Experience with the Flextensional Transducer

Abstract

“Flextensional” is a contraction of flexural and extensional. A flextensional transducer comprises a flattened shell undergoing flexural vibration, driven from the inside by a column of piezoelectric ceramic that is undergoing longitudinal, or extensional, vibration. The first design methods for transducers of this type were due to W. J. Toulis. This paper discusses the measured and predicted performance of several small flextensional transducers and a 7-element line array of them. A vibrational-mode study of the shell flexture, its dependence upon the driving column, and its relation to the measured performance is presented.