Etienne Mfoumou

Design Alterations of a High Power Air Transducer

For certain resonant high-power air transducers exists a radiating cone which is in some way connected to a forcing piezoelectric ceramic. This study focuses purely on the cone structure itself, and the form of excitation that gives desired results on the vibration modes of the cone. In the new design three different parameters are changed from existing devices. They are: 1) the change of the round piezoelectric disc center position to a piezoelectric ring shape, while making the cone center fixed, 2) the cutting of the cone into leaves, and 3) the radial thickness decreasing with radius. In simulations, the new design yields considerably higher vibration amplitudes.

Vibration-based damage detection and evaluation of sheet materials using a remote acoustic excitation

A simple method of damage severity assessment on sheet materials is suggested and proved by theory and experiment. The investigated defect types are in forms of added mass and crack. The method is based on the frequency shift measurement of a material vibrating as a membrane subjected to static tension and irradiated by an acoustic wave. It is shown both theoretically and experimentally that the natural frequency of the damaged membrane is shifted relative to its position in the ideal material. A local increase in thickness (or addition of mass) shifts the natural frequency down, while a crack shifts the frequency up. The method can be considered as acoustic weighting through the frequency shift. The sensitivity of this method can be high because frequency measurement is one of the most accurate measurements in physics and metrology.