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Piezocomposite Materials for Acoustical Imaging Transducers

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Acoustical Imaging

Part of the book series: Acoustical Imaging ((ACIM,volume 21))

Abstract

This overview describes the application of composite piezoelectric materials in acoustical imaging transducers. Attention is focused on one composite structure which has found particularly fruitful applications in acoustical imaging—the 1–3 piezocomposite structure consisting of long thin piezoceramic rods held parallel to each other by a polymer matrix. These piezocomposites may be viewed as ‘new’ materials with a set of ‘effective’ homogeneous materials properties whenever the spatial scale of the constituents in the composite structure is smaller than the wavelength of sound. From knowledge of the sub-wavelength ‘microstructure,’ we obtain an intuitive understanding of the origin of the piezocomposite’s properties, and see how the material properties can be tuned to specific transducer application needs. Commercial applications in medical ultrasonic diagnostics, non-destructive testing, and undersea imaging illustrate the practical exploitation of 1-3 piezocomposites.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Materials Division, Office of Naval Research, 22217-5660, 800 North Quincy Street, Arlington, Virginia, USA

    Wallace Arden Smith

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  1. Wallace Arden Smith
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Radilogical Science, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, 92717, USA

    Joie Pierce Jones

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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Smith, W.A. (1995). Piezocomposite Materials for Acoustical Imaging Transducers. In: Jones, J.P. (eds) Acoustical Imaging. Acoustical Imaging, vol 21. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1943-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-1943-0_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5797-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-1943-0

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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