Dual elliptical shells serially connected broadband flextensional transducer

A new flextensional provided. The transducer's shell transducer with advantages of low frequency, broadband and high output power is is serially connected by two elliptical class IV flextensional shells along the major axis, and driven by two long piezoelectric ceramic stacks inside. With the help of finite element software, a sample whose bandwidth is broadened by coupling the first three flexural modes and the composite mode of driver's longitudinal mode and shell's membrane mode is designed. The sample's transmitting voltage response is more than 128.5 dB and the sound level is more than 190 dB from 1.4 kHz to 6.0 kHz. The tested results reveal that this new transducer not only has a broader bandwidth compared to the traditional class IV flextensional transducers which utilize the first flexural mode only, but also fulfills the requirements of low frequency and high power.