Transduction technologies for structural acoustics sonars

This presentation will describe underwater acoustic transduction technologies that the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has developed for structural acoustics sonars. The NRL “Skyfish” downward-looking sonar system is deployed on a 21-inch diameter autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that features a pair of extendable/retractable wings, each of which houses a thirty-two element cylindrical hydrophone array. The well-behaved acoustic source consists of a pair of transducers, each covering a separate frequency band. The source is designed to provide a fairly wide acoustic aperture for looking both fore and aft as well as in the port and starboard directions. Architectural details of the source and receiver, materials considerations, amplifier design, and experimental data will be presented. [This work supported by the Office of Naval Research & ESTCP.]