Coupled electromechanical modeling of piezoelectric disc transducers for low-frequency ultrasonic collimated beam generation

Low-frequency ultrasonic collimated beam generation from radial modes of piezoelectric disc transducers is studied using a coupled electromechanical finite element approach. First, resonance and vibration characteristics of the radial modes of the disc transducers are obtained using an eigenfrequency analysis. The vibration patterns obtained from numerical simulation are compared with those obtained from experiments and are in good agreement. Next, ultrasonic beam profiles in water generated from the radial modes of a piezo-disc are studied. It was found that a free piezo-disc generates a Bessel-beam with multiple side-lobes. In contrast, clamping the lateral edges of the piezo-disc results in a well-collimated central beam with reduced side-lobes. This provides a novel transducer design for low-frequency collimated beam generation for imaging through highly attenuating materials.