SOME ASPECTS OF ACOUSTIC INTERACTIONS IN SONAR TRANSDUCER ARRAYS

To calculate the transmitting characteristics of sonar arrays, taking into account the acoustic interactions between the transducers and the finite size of the array, a computer model has been developed. The method applies to arbitrary-shaped arrays with piston transducers. The acoustic mutual impedance matrix between the transducers is first computed, and comparison with analytical results in a special case is presented. Then, some results on arrays containing 8 and 32 transducers are shown. For a densely packed array of circular pistons with diameter equal to lambda/4 at the resonance, the acoustic interactions may have large effects on the pressure and velocity distributions on the surface of the array.