Study on tangentially polarized composite cylindrical piezoelectric transducer with high electro-mechanical coupling coefficient

In this work, we proposed an effective way to fabricate a tangentially polarized composite cylindrical transducer with high electro-mechanical coupling coefficient (EMCC) by radially connecting an inner tangential polarized piezoelectric tube with an outer metal ring. The resonance frequency and EMCC of the proposed transducer are calculated according to frequency equations, which are obtained from the equivalent circuit of the transducer, and the results indicate that EMCC of the tangentially polarized cylindrical transducer is much higher than that of the cylindrical transducer polarized in radial direction. Furthermore, the Finite Element Method (FEM) model of the transducer is established and used for numerical simulation of the vibration models and the optimum configuration parameters. On the basis of those theoretical results, serials of prototype transducers are manufactured with an inner tangential polarized piezoelectric tube connecting with different outer metal cylindrical shells. The admittance characteristics of the fabricated transducers measured by Impedance Analyzer clearly demonstrate that the resonance frequencies of the transducers are in good agreement with those of simulation results, and the effective EMCC of transducers varies with the material of metal cylindrical shell, in which aluminum metal shell possesses the highest EMCC.