• Journal of the Korean Society of Fisheries and Ocean Technology
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.196-213
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• 2001

A split beam ultrasonic transducer operating at a frequency of 70 kHz to use in the fish sizing echo sounder was developed and the acoustic radiation characteristics were experimentally analyzed. The amplitude shading method utilizing the properties of the Chebyshev polynomials was used to obtain side lobe levels below -20 dB and to optimize the relationship between main beam width and side lobe level of the transducer, and the amplitude shading coefficient to each of the elements was achieved by changing the amplitude contribution of elements with 4 weighting transformers embodied in the planar array transducer assembly. The planar array split beam transducer assembly was composed of 36 piezoelectric ceramics (NEPEC N-21, Tokin) of rod type of 10 mm in diameter and 18.7 mm in length of 70 kHz arranged in the rectangular configuration, and the 4 electrical inputs were supplied to the beamformer. A series of impedance measurements were conducted to check the uniformity of the individual quadrants, and also in the configurations of reception and transmission, resonant frequency, and the transmitting and receiving characteristics were measured in the water tank and analyzed, respectively. The results obtained are summarized as follows : 1. Average resonant and antiresonant frequencies of electrical impedance for four quadrants of the split beam transducer in water were 69.8 kHz and 83.0 kHz, respectively. Average electrical impedance for each individual transducer quadrant was 49.2$\Omega$ at resonant frequency and 704.7$\Omega$ at antiresonant frequency. 2. The resonance peak in the transmitting voltage response (TVR) for four quadrants of the split beam transducer was observed all at 70.0 kHz and the value of TVR was all about 165.5 dB re 1 $\mu$Pa/V at 1 m at 70.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz between -3 dB down points. The resonance peak in the receiving sensitivity (SRT) for four combined quadrants (quad LU+LL, quad RU+RL, quad LU+RU, quad LL+RL) of the split beam transducer was observed all at 75.0 kHz and the value of SRT was all about -177.7 dB re 1 V/$\mu$Pa at 75.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz between -3 dB down points. The sum beam transmitting voltage response and receiving senstivity was 175.0 dB re 1$\mu$Pa/V at 1 m at 75.0 kHz with bandwidth of 10.0 kHz, respectively. 3. The sum beam of split beam transducer was approximately circular with a half beam angle of $9.0^\circ$ at -3 dB points all in both axis of the horizontal plane and the vertical plane. The first measured side lobe levels for the sum beam of split beam transducer were -19.7 dB at $22^\circ$ and -19.4 dB at $-26^\circ$ in the horizontal plane, respectively and -20.1 dB at $22^\circ$ and -22.0 dB at $-26^\circ$ in the vertical plane, respectively. 4. The developed split beam transducer was tested to estimate the angular position of the target in the beam through split beam phase measurements, and the beam pattern loss for target strength corrections was measured and analyzed.