Design of a Multimode Type Ring Vector Sensor

Typical underwater acoustic sensors can measure the scalar quantity of sound-pressure-magnitude with the limitation of being unable to identify the direction of an incoming wave. This paper proposes a method to detect the direction of the sound wave with a ring sensor. The sensor of the proposed structure has a piezoceramic ring divided into eight elements, and distinguishes the direction of the sound wave by properly combining the output voltages of the piezoceramic elements. Further, through the analysis of the effects of the structural parameters like the ring radius and length, and piezoceramic thickness, we have suggested the way to improve the sensitivity of the vector sensor.

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