Method for transducer transient suppression. I: Theory

The problem of driving a transducer in such a way as to produce a tone burst of steady-state sound radiation in the surrounding fluid medium is considered. The goal is to determine the driving voltage waveform to apply to a transducer to produce an acoustic pressure waveform in the fluid that is a segment of a steady-state sine wave, beginning and ending at zero crossings of the sine, i.e., the usual turnon and turnoff transients are suppressed. The theoretical driving voltage waveform for a spherical transducer is shown to consist of a sum of a pedestal voltage, a ramp voltage, and a sinusoidal voltage that is phase shifted with respect to the sinusoid appearing in the fluid. Both theoretical and numerical calculations are given here. The following paper presents results of experimental measurements. The measurements were carried out on several spherical transducers (one of which was selected for presentation) and on an array of piezoelectric tubes. These experiments confirm the validity of the theory.