Design and development of a broadband hydrophone

The design and development of a broadband piezoelectric ceramic hydrophone is presented. A finite element package - ATILA - is used to model and design the hydrophone. The effect of the dimensions and properties of the components on the free-field voltage sensitivity of the hydrophone to a plane wave is studied by changing them one at a time and the results are used to design the final configuration. The acoustic sensitivity obtained using ATILA is in good agreement with experimental results. The hydrophone is successfully tested in sea trials.