Design, Assembly and Performance of a 1.6 kHz Class I Barrel Stave Projector

Barrel-stave flextensional transducers are active low-frequency sources with unique properties of high power, reduced weight, and small size. These sources are well suited for both military and commercial applications. This report presents the results of development work on barrel-stave projectors, including piezoelectric material selection, FEM modeling, transducer assembly and acoustic testing. The objective is to develop low-cost transducers for sonar and other applications.