ASA 127th Meeting M.I.T. 1994 June 6-10

4aEA3. (3,1) drive PVDF vibration sensor for underwater measurements of compliant surface motion.

Jayme J. Caspall

Jacek Jarzynski

John W. Doane

Georgia Tech Res. Inst., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA 30332-0800

A new (3,1) drive piezofilm vibration sensor has been developed. The sensor operates between the lumped element resonance and the first transmission line resonance to provide an output proportional to displacement within a specified frequency range. The demonstration model of this sensor is flat over the range, 2 to 8 kHz. The open circuit voltage sensitivity is 1.5 mV/nm, which is roughly equivalent to a 30-mV/g accelerometer in this frequency range. The mounted mechanical impedance is low, which makes this sensor ideal where mass loading is a concern. Some measurements of compliant materials (neoprene and corprene) are discussed. [Work supported by ONR.]