Christian Granger

Cone-like bubble formation in ultrasonic cavitation field.

A new phenomenon in ultrasonic cavitation field is reported. Cavitation bubbles are observed to self-arrange in a cone-like macrostructure in the vicinity of transducer radiating surface. The cone-like macrostructure is stable while its branch-like pattern microstructure changes rapidly. The structure is constituted by moving bubbles which undergo attractive and repulsive Bjerknes forces caused by high acoustic pressure gradients and strongly nonlinear oscillations of cavitation bubbles. The cone-like bubble structure is a chemically active formation. Its remarkably high activity is confirmed by chemiluminescence experiments.

On the physical origin of conical bubble structure under an ultrasonic horn.

The cavitation field generated by an ultrasonic horn at low frequency and high power is known to self-organize into a conical bubble structure. The physical mechanism at the origin of this bubble structure is investigated using numerical simulations and acoustic pressure measurements. The thin bubbly layer lying at horn surface is shown to act as a nonlinear thickness resonator that amplifies acoustic pressure and distorts acoustic waveform. This mechanism explains the self-stabilization of the conical bubble structure as well as the generation of shock wave and the focusing at very short distance.

Characterization of multilayered piezoelectric ceramics for high power transducers.

In some circumstances, large vibrational displacements at ultrasonic frequency must be generated using a low voltage drive. This result cannot be obtained with monolithic PZT ceramics which require voltages larger than 1000 V to produce displacements of the micrometer order at resonance. The use of multilayered hard lead zirconate titanate ceramics as transduction material in resonant devices is experimentally investigated for Langevin-type transducers. Large amplitudes are obtained under low drive (5 microm under 10 V). Material constant (compliance, losses) variations under large dynamic stress are, at least, one order of magnitude larger than for monolithic ceramics. Depolarization is found to be a critical issue when the transducer is driven continuously. It is demonstrated that this problem can be solved by polishing the interfaces between different parts of the device and applying an electrical DC bias to the transducer.

Tunability of Bragg band gaps in one-dimensional piezoelectric phononic crystals using external capacitances

A one-dimensional stack of identical piezoelectric rods is investigated. The device exhibits a band gap related to electrical boundary condition. A separate control of the central frequency and of the width of the band gap is performed by an electrical boundary condition involving two different variable capacitances. Because the capacitances are grounded, a specific model has been developed and validated. Finally, experiments unambiguously confirmed previous theoretical observations.

Design, production and testing of PMN-PT electrostrictive transducers.

Lead magnesium niobate ceramics (PMN) are promising materials for application in the field of high power transducers. The advantage of PMN materials are the large strains generated under moderate electric field and the low hysteresis. The electrostrictive effect is non-linear, the corresponding physical constants depend on temperature and frequency and a DC electrical bias is required. These difficulties must be considered at the design stage. A finite element model has been developed and validated in the ATILA code for non-linear static and time-domain analyses. These numerical modelings are used to design and test two Langevin-type electrostrictive transducers. The first transducer is made of PMN-PT-La (90-10-1%) ceramics (TRS Ceramics), the second one of ESCI ceramics (Morgan Matroc). For given static mechanical prestresses, resonance frequencies and effective coupling coefficients are measured at different DC electric fields and temperatures.

Acoustic wave localization in one-dimensional Fibonacci phononic structures with mirror symmetry

This paper reports on numerical and experimental results of acoustic transmission spectra of bead chains with symmetric and asymmetric Fibonacci-like structures. As a matter of comparison, perfect periodic acoustic waveguide structures are also examined. This study shows that Fibonacci structures with mirror symmetry can exhibit localized modes with higher amplitude, due to resonant transmission induced by the presence of dimers inside the 1D structure. A good agreement is observed between the theoretical predictions and the experimental power spectra.

Tunable phononic crystals based on piezoelectric composites with 1-3 connectivity.

Phononic crystals made of piezoelectric composites with 1-3 connectivity are studied theoretically and experimentally. It is shown that they present Bragg band gaps that depend on the periodic electrical boundary conditions. These structures have improved properties compared to phononic crystals composed of bulk piezoelectric elements, especially the existence of larger band gaps and the fact that they do not require severe constraints on their aspect ratios. Experimental results present an overall agreement with the theoretical predictions and clearly show that the pass bands and stop bands of the device under study are easily tunable by only changing the electrical boundary conditions applied on each piezocomposite layer.

Theoretical and experimental analyses of tunable fabry-perot resonators using piezoelectric phononic crystals

Theoretical and experimental analyses of piezoelectric stacks submitted to periodical electrical boundary conditions via electrodes are conducted. The presented structures exhibit Bragg band gaps that can be switched on or off by setting electrodes in short or open circuit. The band gap frequency width is determined by the electromechanical coupling coefficient. This property is used to design a Fabry-Perot cavity delimited by a periodic piezoelectric stack. An analytical model based on a transfer matrix formalism is used to model the wave propagation inside the structure. The cavity resonance tunability is obtained by varying the cavity length (i.e., by spatially shifting boundary conditions in the stack). 26% tuning of resonance and antiresonance frequencies with almost constant electromechanical coupling coefficient of 5% are theoretically predicted for an NCE41 resonator. To optimize the device, the influence of various parameters is theoretically investigated. The cavity length, phononic crystal (number and length of unit cells), and transducer position can be adapted to tune the frequency shift and the coupling coefficient. When the transducer is located at a nodal plane of the cavity, the value of the coupling coefficient is 30%. Experimental results are presented and discussed analyzing the effects of damping.

Reducing crosstalk in array structures by controlling the excitation voltage of individual elements: A feasibility study

This paper describes a procedure to minimize crosstalk between the individual elements of a piezoelectric transducer array. A two-dimensional finite elements model was developed and the excitation voltages predicted by the model were applied to the array prototypes made of PZT 27 ceramic. Symmetric and asymmetric linear phased arrays operating at approximately 450 kHz were tested in the feasibility study. The studies were carried out at low frequency to facilitate the fabrication of the transducer arrays and to check the feasibility in this case. The novelty of our approach is to offer active cancellation of crosstalk in transducer arrays generating continuous waves, even in the presence of fabrication defects. The experimental results showed the validity of the approach and demonstrated that crosstalk can be reduced by about 6-10 dB. In ultrasonic imaging systems, this method could be introduced by using a multichannel generator providing electrical signals containing both phased signals required to focalize and deflect the acoustic beam associated with the correction signals.

Coupled finite-element wave number decomposition method for the modeling of piezoelectric transducers radiating in fluid-filled boreholes

A numerical model is proposed to describe in the frequency domain the radiation of a piezoelectric transducer in a fluid-filled borehole surrounded by a formation of infinite extent. Finite elements are used to model the transducer, the borehole fluid, and the fluid–formation interface. The unbounded character of the domain is accounted for by using a wave number decomposition on the borehole surface and dampers on the top and bottom surfaces of the borehole mesh. The method is validated by studying three configurations with analytical solutions: (i) normal stress acting on an empty borehole; (ii) normal stress acting on a fluid-filled borehole; and (iii) point source acting on the fluid-filled borehole axis. The radiation of a piezoelectric ring transducer in an oil-filled tube surrounded by water is also studied experimentally and numerically.