Deepwater modularized hanging lug type arc transducer

Abstract

The invention discloses a deepwater modularized hanging lug type arc transducer. The transducer is composed of a watertight sound transmission protection shell part, a hanging lug type active excitation part, a pressure-resistant decoupling backing part, a metal bottom plate part and an internal filling part. The active excitation part is sleeved on the outer side of the pressure-resistant decoupling backing, the active excitation part and the pressure-resistant decoupling backing are fixed on a shell formed by the watertight sound-permeable protective shell and the metal bottom plate through a hanger type elastic suspension structure, and the internal filling part is filled in other cavities in the transducer, so that the active excitation part presents a suspension effect. All the parts are modularly designed, prepared and combined and are mutually independent, and any part can be replaced. The acoustic transmission layer is prepared by adopting a modular design, a hanging lug type elastic suspension vibration isolation structure, a suspension type oil-filled supporting structure and a vulcanization process, and on the basis of ensuring the large-opening-angle and high-source-level performance requirements of a conventional arc-shaped transducer, the ultrasonic transducer has high maintainability, high vibration isolation and interference resistance, high reliability and stability and full-sea-depth resistance.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of underwater transducers, in particular to a deep-water modular ear-hanging arc transducer. Background Art

[0002] Currently, arc-shaped transducers are connected as a whole through bonding, injection and other processes. Once damaged, they can only be remade as a whole and cannot be repaired, for example, when the sound-transmitting layer collides with an obstacle and is damaged. The present invention needs to improve the maintainability and reliability of the arc-shaped transducer.

[0003] At present, the active excitation part of the arc-shaped transducer is rigidly adhered to the decoupling backing, and the mechanical vibration during the movement of the submersible can be directly transmitted to the active excitation part through the backing. In shallow water, the decoupling backing contains more bubbles, and the decoupling effect is better, which can reduce the influence of mechanical vibration on active excitation. However, under high hydrostatic pressure, the decoupling backing needs to reduce the size and number of bubbles to improve the pressure-bearing capacity, which will inevitably weaken the decoupling effect, increase the influence of mechanical vibration on active excitation, and interfere with the sound radiation effect. Therefore, the current method of isolating the mechanical vibration of the submersible is not practical under high hydrostatic pressure and there is a lot of interference. The present invention needs to solve the influence of mechanical vibration transmission on acoustic performance under high hydrostatic pressure and improve the vibration isolation effect under deep water.

[0004] At present, the active excitation part of the arc transducer is rigidly connected to the decoupling backing by bonding, and polyurethane foam material is used as the decoupling backing to provide pressure-resistant support for the active excitation part. However, the bonding process is very easy to produce tiny bubble cavities, and there are also a large number of bubble cavities inside the polyurethane foam material, which will cause uneven compression and deformation of the support structure under high hydrostatic pressure, causing the arc active excitation part to fail due to fracturing. Therefore, the current structural transducer cannot work at a large depth. The present invention needs to solve the problem of deep water pressure resistance.

[0005] At present, the sound-transmitting layer of the transducer is usually formed by injection molding, and the vulcanization process with lower water permeability is not adopted because the high temperature and high pressure preparation environment easily affects the decoupling backing and the arc-shaped active excitation part. The present invention needs to solve the influence of the vulcanization process molding conditions on the arc-shaped transducer, and use the vulcanization process to improve the deep-water reliability of the arc-shaped transducer.

[0006] In recent years, the construction of ocean space stations and deep-diving underwater unmanned vehicles AUV / UUV has been vigorously developed, and ocean operations have gradually developed from nearshore to deep sea. These reconnaissance platforms can accurately map the seabed terrain, identify targets such as mines, obstacles, and frogmen. In order to realize the functions of these unmanned combat platforms, a batch of corresponding high hydrostatic pressure-resistant sonar equipment is urgently needed.

[0007] The arc transducer is a commonly used transducer structure in sonar systems. It has the characteristics of a large horizontal coverage angle. It is currently widely used in the fields of multi-beam depth sounders that can effectively detect seabed topography in shallow water, image sonars that can distinguish seabed images, and forward-looking sonars that can identify obstacles. However, there is little research on deep-water work. With the gradual increase in the diving depth of unmanned combat platforms, higher requirements are placed on the pressure resistance of arc transducers. At the same time, the harsh and complex deep-water working environment also requires sonar transducers to pay more attention to the decoupling vibration isolation capability and reliability of the equipment.

[0008] At present, the design of arc-shaped transducers usually uses piezoelectric composite materials as the active excitation part to be bonded to the polyurethane foam backing, and the outer side is poured with a glue layer for watertight treatment. This kind of transducer design makes it very difficult to repair the transducer once it is damaged after molding, and it can only be re-prepared. For example, the watertight sound-permeable glue layer is prone to hydroacoustic organisms attaching, and it is easy to be damaged in a complex underwater environment. Once the sound-permeable layer leaks, it will directly affect the work of the active part. At the same time, the decoupling support polyurethane foam material used in this preparation method cannot withstand high hydrostatic pressure, and the preparation process of bonding each part is very likely to produce small cavities. Under the action of high hydrostatic pressure, slight deformation of the decoupling support material can easily cause the arc-shaped active excitation part to break, and it cannot work in deep water. In addition, the rigid bonding method of the active excitation part and the backing is also easy to transmit the mechanical vibration of the submersible sailing in deep water to the active excitation part.

[0009] In the prior art, for example, "A kind of arc-shaped transducer" bonds the composite piezoelectric material into the groove of the decoupling arc-shaped backing material, bonds the decoupling arc-shaped backing to the metal lower cover plate, and pours a sound-permeable watertight layer on the outside. "Low directivity fluctuation arc-shaped transmitting transducer array" reduces the directivity fluctuation through an elliptical base structure, but the basic structure is the same. "A kind of underwater sound-generating device resistant to deep water pressure" uses the nearly incompressible property of silicone rubber elastomer to fill the internal cavity of the metal support to ensure the balanced pressure inside and outside, so as to withstand high hydrostatic pressure, but its basic structure is the same as the above, that is, the transducer material layer is bonded to the supporting decoupling layer, and the outside is poured with a watertight glue layer, and its active excitation part is directly in rigid connection and contact with the metal base plate.

[0010] The arc-shaped transducer cannot be disassembled after being prepared. Once a part is damaged, it is impossible to replace a part and the whole part can only be dismantled and returned to the factory for re-preparation. For example, the watertight sound-transmitting shell grows marine organisms, it is damaged by touching obstacles, the rubber of the sound-transmitting layer leaks water, the active excitation part has high-power and long-term working electrodes fall off, etc. The various parts of the present invention work relatively independently and can be disassembled and replaced, which improves the maintainability and reliability of the transducer.

[0011] At present, the active excitation part of the arc-shaped transducer is rigidly adhered to the decoupling backing, and the mechanical vibration during the movement of the submersible can be directly transmitted to the active excitation part through the backing. In shallow water, the decoupling backing contains more bubbles, and the decoupling effect is better, which can reduce the influence of mechanical vibration on active excitation. However, under high hydrostatic pressure, the decoupling backing needs to reduce the size and number of bubbles and improve the pressure-bearing capacity, which will inevitably weaken the decoupling effect, increase the influence of mechanical vibration on active excitation, and interfere with the sound radiation effect. The present invention uses an ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration reduction structure to separate the rigid connection between the active excitation part and the shell, thereby reducing the influence of the mechanical vibration of the submersible on the transducer.

[0012] At present, the active excitation part of the arc-shaped transducer is rigidly connected to the decoupling backing by a bonding process, and a polyurethane foam material is used as a decoupling backing to provide pressure-resistant support for the active excitation part. However, the bonding process is very likely to produce tiny bubble cavities, and there are also a large number of bubble cavities inside the polyurethane foam material, which will cause uneven compression and deformation of the support structure under high hydrostatic pressure, causing the arc-shaped active excitation part to fracture and fail. The transducer of the present invention is prepared without a bonding process, which reduces the existence of cavities. Each part is suspended in a filling oil substance, and has the ability to compensate for slight deformation pressure of the material under high hydrostatic pressure, so that the transducer can work at full sea depth.

[0013] Currently, the sound-transmitting layer is prepared by a perfusion process rather than a vulcanization process which has lower water permeability and higher reliability after curing. The present invention adopts a vulcanization process to prepare the sound-transmitting layer, and prepares it separately through a split design, thereby avoiding the influence of the high temperature and high pressure environment of the vulcanization process on the active part and backing of the transducer. Summary of the invention

[0014] In view of the above-mentioned technical deficiencies, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a deep-water modular ear-hanging arc-shaped transducer, which adopts modular design, ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation structure, suspended oil-filled support structure and vulcanization process to prepare the sound-transmitting layer, so as to effectively improve the maintainability, vibration isolation and anti-interference ability, reliability and stability of the transducer, and its ability to withstand full sea depth.

[0015] In order to solve the above technical problems, the present invention provides the following technical solutions: a deep-water modular ear-hanging arc-shaped transducer, which is composed of five parts, namely, a watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part, an ear-hanging active excitation part, a pressure-resistant decoupling backing part, a metal bottom plate part, and an internal filling part. The watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part and the metal bottom plate part constitute the outermost overall shell of the transducer, the ear-hanging active excitation part and the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part are located inside the overall shell, and the internal filling part fills the remaining cavities inside the transducer. The ear-hanging active excitation part is located between the watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part and the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part, and the three are fastened by screws; wherein the watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part is composed of a metal support seat and a rubber shell; the ear-hanging active excitation part is composed of a piezoelectric element and an ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer; the metal bottom plate part is added with an oil filling hole, and the internal filling part fills all the cavity parts.

[0016] Preferably, the watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part, the ear-hanging active excitation part, the pressure-resistant backing part, and the metal base plate part are all separately modularly designed. After being independently prepared, the four are fastened together by screws. The internal filling part is oily substance, which fills all cavities. Each part is independent of each other, and any part can be disassembled and replaced.

[0017] Preferably, the ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer is coated on the outside of the active excitation, and extends on both sides to form an ear-hanging structure, which is fixed to the metal support base of the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell part by screws, so that the active excitation and the transducer shell are connected only through the elastic suspension ear, thereby reducing the interference vibration transmission caused by the rigid connection; the ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer is made of any one of polyurethane rubber, chloroprene rubber, plastic and other modified materials

[0018] Preferably, the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell is separately prepared by a vulcanization process. During the shell preparation process, since no active excitation and decoupling vibration isolation materials are introduced, the influence of the high temperature and high pressure environment of the vulcanization process on the structure can be effectively avoided. The rubber shell in the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell can be prepared by any one of chloroprene rubber, polyurethane rubber and other modified materials.

[0019] Preferably, the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part is not in direct bonding contact with the active excitation part, and a liquid-filled suspended structure is used for micro-deformation self-compensation to avoid the breakage of the arc-shaped active excitation part caused by the tiny deformation of the decoupling backing material structure in deep water; the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part is made of high-pressure resistant glass beads or other composite high-pressure resistant decoupling and vibration isolation materials.

[0020] Preferably, a plurality of rubber shell fixing slots are added to the bottom of the metal support seat in the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell, and arc-shaped hollow metal frames are extended on both sides. The fixing slots are added to increase the bonding surface between the rubber shell and the metal base to avoid peeling. The addition of the arc-shaped metal frame helps to improve the strength of the protective sound-transmitting shell and effectively avoid damage to the internal active excitation caused by the impact deformation of the shell in the complex underwater environment. The hollow design is to reduce weight.

[0021] Preferably, no bonding process is involved in the preparation of each part, thereby reducing micro cavities caused by bonding and improving the pressure resistance of the transducer.

[0022] Preferably, the internal filling part can be filled with oil substances for pressure compensation to ensure deep water pressure resistance, and can also be filled with water in an overflow manner.

[0023] Preferably, the piezoelectric element adopts a piezoelectric ceramic particle cluster with a skeleton, an arc-shaped piezoelectric ceramic sheet or an arc-shaped piezoelectric composite material.

[0024] The beneficial effects of the present invention are as follows:

[0025] 1. Modular preparation: The transducer can be disassembled into 5 components for assembly. Each component is independent of each other, which is convenient for transducer damage repair and replacement, effectively improving the maintainability of the transducer;

[0026] 2. Ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation structure: The active excitation part is suspended in the filling oil layer, and only the elastic rubber ear is connected to the shell, which effectively reduces the transmission of mechanical vibration, weakens the influence of shell vibration on the active excitation of the transducer, and improves the vibration isolation and anti-interference ability of the transducer;

[0027] 3. Suspended oil-filled support structure of active excitation part: The active excitation part and the decoupling backing part are separated and non-bonded to avoid the tiny cavities caused by the bonding process. The active excitation part is wrapped with oil to form a suspended support structure, so that the transducer has a self-compensation support effect of micro-deformation of the material under high hydrostatic pressure and can withstand full sea depth operation;

[0028] 4. The watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell is designed with vulcanization process: Due to the modular preparation of the watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell, there is no need to put in the active excitation part. The watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell can be directly vulcanized and formed. The high temperature and high pressure vulcanization environment will not affect the active excitation part. The vulcanization process has a lower water seepage rate than the perfusion process, which is suitable for deep water work and effectively improves the reliability of the transducer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0029] Figure 1 An exploded view of the present invention;

[0030] Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the present invention;

[0031] Figure 3 A cross-sectional view of another direction of the present invention;

[0032] Figure 4 It is a schematic diagram of the structure of the metal support seat in the present invention;

[0033] Figure 5 The response curve of the physical test of the present invention;

[0034] Figure 6 This is the directivity curve of the actual test of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0035] The following will be combined with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention to clearly and completely describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only part of the embodiments of the present invention, not all of the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by ordinary technicians in this field without creative work are within the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0036] Example 1

[0037] like Figure 1-6 As shown, a deep-water modular ear-hanging arc-shaped transducer is composed of a watertight sound-transmitting protective shell part 1, an ear-hanging active excitation part 2, a pressure-resistant decoupling backing part 3, a metal bottom plate part 4, and an internal filling part 5. The sound-transmitting protective shell part 1 is composed of a metal support seat 11 and a rubber shell 12, and the ear-hanging active excitation part is composed of a piezoelectric element 21 and an ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer 22. The metal bottom plate part 4 is added with a liquid injection hole, and the internal filling part 5 fills all the cavity parts.

[0038] The watertight sound-transmitting protective shell 1 is prepared separately by vulcanization. During the shell preparation process, since there is no piezoelectric element and decoupling vibration isolation material, the influence of the high temperature and high pressure environment of vulcanization on the transducer structure can be effectively avoided. The protective sound-transmitting shell prepared by vulcanization has the advantages of lower water permeability and longer service life compared with the injection molding.

[0039] refer to Figure 4 The metal support base 11 in the watertight sound-transparent protective shell has multiple rubber shell fixing slots at the bottom, and arc-shaped hollow metal frames extend on both sides. The fixing slots are added to increase the bonding surface between the rubber shell and the metal base to avoid peeling. The addition of the arc-shaped metal frame helps to improve the strength of the protective sound-transparent shell and effectively prevent damage to the internal active excitation caused by impact deformation in the complex underwater environment. The hollow design is to reduce weight.

[0040] The piezoelectric element 21 can adopt a piezoelectric ceramic particle cluster with a skeleton, an arc-shaped piezoelectric ceramic sheet, or an arc-shaped piezoelectric composite material. The piezoelectric element 21 is welded with a wire to prepare an electrode layer, and then the piezoelectric element 21 with the electrode wire welded is poured into the ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer 22 through a pouring mold using a vacuum-assisted pouring technology. The ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer 22 is made of any one of polyurethane rubber, chloroprene rubber, plastic, and other modified materials, and can be coated on the outside of the piezoelectric element 21 to ensure that the piezoelectric element 21 is independently insulated and watertight. At the same time, the poured ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer 22 can effectively avoid the risk of cavities in the bonding decoupling backing caused by the uneven solder joints of the piezoelectric element. The ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer allows the piezoelectric element to be suspended in the middle of the oil, and does not directly contact the metal shell and outer shell fixed on the outside of the submersible, which greatly reduces the interference of mechanical vibration on sound radiation. At the same time, the suspended structure enables the active excitation part to have a micro-deformation pressure compensation effect under high hydrostatic pressure, effectively avoiding the breakage of the active excitation part caused by the failure of support of various parts of the transducer due to slight deformation under high hydrostatic pressure.

[0041] The pressure-resistant decoupling backing part 3 is made of high-pressure-resistant glass beads or other composite high-pressure-resistant decoupling and vibration-isolating materials.

[0042] The prepared watertight sound-transparent protective shell part 1, the ear-hanging active excitation part 2 and the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part 3 are fixed together by screws, and then covered with a metal base plate 4, and the internal filling oil material is injected through the injection hole on the metal base plate 4 to ensure deep water pressure resistance.

[0043] Components 1-4 are mechanically connected together by screws, and modular components can be replaced by unscrewing the screws. If a component fails, it will not affect the other components, which improves the maintainability and reliability of the transducer. At the same time, there is no bonding process in the preparation and connection of each component, which effectively avoids the risk of small cavities and improves the reliability of deep-water pressure resistance.

[0044] Example 2

[0045] The piezoelectric element 21 of the present invention can adopt a piezoelectric ceramic particle cluster with a skeleton, an arc-shaped piezoelectric ceramic sheet or an arc-shaped piezoelectric composite material. The ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer 22 is made of any one of polyurethane rubber, chloroprene rubber, plastic and other modified materials. The pressure-resistant decoupling backing part 3 is made of high-pressure resistant glass beads or other composite high-pressure resistant decoupling vibration isolation materials. The internal filling layer can be filled with oil substances for pressure compensation to ensure deep water pressure resistance, and can also be filled with water in an overflow manner.

[0046] Although specific embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes, modifications, substitutions and variations may be made to the embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit thereof, and that the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer, characterized in that: It consists of five parts in total, including a watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part, an ear-hanging active excitation part, a pressure-resistant decoupling backing part, a metal bottom plate part, and an internal filling part. The watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part and the metal bottom plate part constitute the outermost overall shell of the transducer, the ear-hanging active excitation part and the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part are located inside the overall shell, and the internal filling part fills the remaining cavities inside the transducer. The ear-hanging active excitation part is located between the watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part and the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part, and the three are fastened by screws; the watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part is composed of a metal support seat and a rubber shell; the ear-hanging active excitation part is composed of a piezoelectric element and an ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer; the metal bottom plate part is added with an oil filling hole, and the internal filling part fills all the cavity parts.

2. A deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: The watertight and sound-transmitting protective shell part, the ear-hanging active excitation part, the pressure-resistant backing part, and the metal base plate part are all designed as separate modules. After being independently prepared, the four are fastened together by screws. The internal filling part is oily substance, which fills all cavities. Each part is independent of each other, and any part can be disassembled and replaced.

3. The deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: The ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer is coated on the outside of the active excitation and extends on both sides to form an ear-hanging structure, which is fixed to the metal support base of the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell part by screws, so that the active excitation and the transducer shell are connected only by the elastic suspension ear, thereby weakening the interference vibration transmission caused by the rigid connection; the ear-hanging elastic suspension vibration isolation layer is made of any one of polyurethane rubber, chloroprene rubber, plastic and other modified materials.

4. A deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: The rubber shell in the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell is prepared separately by a vulcanization process. During the shell preparation process, since no active excitation and decoupling vibration isolation materials are introduced, the influence of the high temperature and high pressure environment of the vulcanization process on the structure can be effectively avoided. The rubber shell in the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell can be prepared by any one of chloroprene rubber, polyurethane rubber and other modified materials.

5. The deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: The pressure-resistant decoupling backing part is not in direct bonding contact with the active excitation part, but a liquid-filled suspension structure is used for micro-deformation self-compensation to avoid the breakage of the arc-shaped active excitation part caused by the tiny deformation of the decoupling backing material structure in deep water; the pressure-resistant decoupling backing part is made of high-pressure resistant glass beads or other composite high-pressure resistant decoupling and vibration isolation materials.

6. The deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: A plurality of rubber shell fixing slots are added to the bottom of the metal support base in the watertight sound-transmitting protective shell, and arc-shaped hollow metal frames are extended on both sides. The fixing slots are added to increase the bonding surface between the rubber shell and the metal base to avoid peeling. The addition of the arc-shaped metal frame helps to improve the strength of the protective sound-transmitting shell and effectively avoid damage to the internal active excitation caused by the impact deformation of the shell in the complex underwater environment. The hollow design is to reduce weight.

7. The deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: There is no bonding process during the preparation of each part, thereby reducing micro cavities caused by bonding.

8. The deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: The internal filling part can be filled with oil substances for pressure compensation to ensure deep water pressure resistance, and can also be filled with water in an overflow manner.

9. The deepwater modular ear-hanging arc transducer according to claim 1, characterized in that: The piezoelectric element adopts a piezoelectric ceramic particle cluster with a skeleton, an arc-shaped piezoelectric ceramic sheet or an arc-shaped piezoelectric composite material.

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