Abstract
A low frequency, high power hydroacoustic transducer with 7 tonpilz piston elements assembled in a circular array suitable for marine application, such as the transmission of underwater information and the development of new fisheries resources in the deep sea zone was designed. A modified Mason's model was applied to monitor and to simulate the transducer behavior at each step during the fabrication. The in air, and in water constructed tonpilz transducer was tested experimentally and numerically by changing the size and the type of the material for head, tail and acoustic window. Also, the developed transducer was excited by pulse signals and the received waveform was analyzed. The resonance peaks in the transmitting voltage response(TVR) of a single tonpilz element without housing were observed at 11.33kHz in air and 10.93kHz in air and 10.93 kHz in water, respectively, with the overall electrical-acoustic efficiency of 43.7%. The value of TVR of single tonpilz element with aluminum housing in water was 129.87dB re 1 $\mu$Pa/V at 12.25 kHz with the frequency bandwith of 2.15 kHz and half beam angle of 30.2$^{\circ}$at -3dB.The resonance peaks in the transmitting voltage response of the 7 element circular transducer were observed at 11.50 kHz in air and 11.45 kHz in water, respectively. The value of TVR in water 144.84 dB re 1$\mu$Pa/V at 11.5kHz with the frequency bandwith of 4.25 kHz and the half beam angle of $22.3^{\circ} $ at -3dB.Reasonable agreement between the experimental measurements and the theoretical predictions for the directivity patterns, TVRs and the impedance characteristics of the designed transducer was achieved.