Acoustic Transduction - Materials and Devices. Volume 6

Acoustic Transduction - Materials and Devices. Volume 6
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Total Pages: 141
Release: 2000
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This report describes research performed over the period 1st January 2000 to 31st December 2000 on a MURI under Office of Naval Research contract N00014-96-1-1173 on the topic "Acoustic Transduction Materials and Devices". This program brings together researchers from the Materials Research Laboratory (MRL), the Applied Research Laboratory (ARL) and the Center for Acoustics and Vibrations (CAV) at the Pennsylvania State University. As has become customary over many years, research on the program is detailed in the technical appendices of published work, and only a brief narrative description connecting these studies is given in the text. The overall objective of the program is the development of acoustic transduction materials and devices of direct relevance to U.S. Navy needs, but also with relevant application capability in commercial sector products. A continuing emphasis is upon high performance high sensitivity sensors and upon high authority high strain actuators for transducing functions. New materials and improved material systems are being developed on the program. These studies are affording new insights into the strain mechanisms in already widely used ceramics and polymers and are developing needs for new device structures and improved drive and control strategies. There is proper emphasis upon performance and reliability under a wide range of operating conditions consonant with Navy needs.