Acoustic radiation from cylindrical transducer arrays

A method is presented to determine the omni-directional and directional far-field pressures radiated by cylindrical transducer arrays in an infinite rigid cylindrical baffle. The solution to the Helmholtz equation and the displacement continuity condition at the interface between the array and the surrounding water are used to determine the pressure. The displacement of the surface of each piston transducer is in the direction of the normal to the array and is assumed to be uniform. Expressions are derived for the pressure radiated by a sector of the array vibrating in-phase, the entire array vibrating in-phase, and a sector of the array phase-shaded to simulate radiation from a rectangular piston. It is shown that the uniform displacement required for generating a source level of 220 dB ref. mu Pa at 1 m that is omni-directional in the azimuthal plane is in the order of 1 mu m for typical arrays. Numerical results are presented to show that there is only a small difference between the on-axis pressures radiated by phased cylindrical arrays and planar arrays. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.