TY - JOUR
T1 - Design, fabrication, and performance of a flextensional transducer based on electrostrictive polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene copolymer
AU - Cheng, Zhong Yang
AU - Xu, Tian Bing
AU - Zhang, Qiming
N1 - Funding Information:
Manuscript received January 10, 2002; accepted April 5, 2002. This work was supported by DARPA and ONR. The authors are with The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802 (e-mail: [email protected]).
PY - 2002/4/1
Y1 - 2002/4/1
N2 - Taking advantage of the high electrostrictive strain and high elastic energy density of a newly developed electrostrictive polymer, modified poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] based polymers, a flex-tensional transducer was designed, and its performance was investigated. The flextensional transducer consists of a multilayer stack made of electrostrictive P(VDF-TrFE) polymer films and two flextensional shells fixed at the ends to the multilayer stack. Because of the large transverse strain level achievable in the electrostrictive polymer and the displacement amplification of the flextensional shells, a device of a few millimeters thick and lateral dimension about 30 mm × 25 mm can generate an axial displacement output of more than 1 mm. The unique flextensional configuration and the high elastic energy density of the active polymer also enable the device to offer high-load capability. As an underwater transducer, the device can be operated at frequencies below 1 kHz and still exhibit relatively high transmitting voltage response (TVR), very high source level (SL), and low mechanical quality factor (Qm).
AB - Taking advantage of the high electrostrictive strain and high elastic energy density of a newly developed electrostrictive polymer, modified poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE)] based polymers, a flex-tensional transducer was designed, and its performance was investigated. The flextensional transducer consists of a multilayer stack made of electrostrictive P(VDF-TrFE) polymer films and two flextensional shells fixed at the ends to the multilayer stack. Because of the large transverse strain level achievable in the electrostrictive polymer and the displacement amplification of the flextensional shells, a device of a few millimeters thick and lateral dimension about 30 mm × 25 mm can generate an axial displacement output of more than 1 mm. The unique flextensional configuration and the high elastic energy density of the active polymer also enable the device to offer high-load capability. As an underwater transducer, the device can be operated at frequencies below 1 kHz and still exhibit relatively high transmitting voltage response (TVR), very high source level (SL), and low mechanical quality factor (Qm).
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U2 - 10.1109/TUFFC.2002.1041548
DO - 10.1109/TUFFC.2002.1041548
M3 - Article
C2 - 12243582
AN - SCOPUS:0036761368
SN - 0885-3010
VL - 49
SP - 1312
EP - 1320
JO - IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
JF - IEEE Transactions on Ultrasonics, Ferroelectrics, and Frequency Control
IS - 9
ER -