Incidence Angle Estimation by the Tonpilz Type Underwater Acoustic Vector Sensor with a Quadrupole Structure

Abstract

Typical Tonpilz type underwater acoustic transducers making use of piezoelectric ceramics detect the magnitude of an acoustic pressure, a scalar quantity, and convert this pressure into a proportional output voltage. The scalar sensor has no directional sensitivity. In this paper, we have proposed a new vector sensor based on the Tonpilz transducer structure, which is sensitive to both the magnitude and the azimuthal direction of an acoustic wave. Validity of this new design has been confirmed with analytic equations and finite element analyses.