Calculation of baffle effect and mutual interaction between elements for an underwater acoustic conformal array with application to the optimization of projecting beampattern

The boundary element theory together with the optimization method is used to calculate the driving voltage weighting vector of a conformal array of underwater acoustic projecting transducers to obtain a low-sidelobe beampattern. At first, the relationship between the acoustic radiated field and the vibra- tion velocity of the array is formulated from the boundary element equation when the boundary im- pedance of the array baffle is specified. Then, the mutual impedance matrix of the array is calculated, and the relationship between the driving voltage and the vibration velocity of the transducers is pre- sented based on the equivalent circuit principle. At last, the driving voltage weighting vector of the array is calculated through an optimization method to obtain a low-sidelobe projecting beampattern. Computer simulation is conducted for a 14-element conformal array. An experiment has been carried out to measure the radiation directivity of the array in an anechoic water tank. The calculated and the experimental results show that the proposed method accounts for the acoustic effect of the baffle and the mutual interactions among transducers successfully and obtain a low-sidelobe projecting beam- pattern, and at the same time provide the largest amplitude of pressure in the axial direction when the maximum amplitude of the driving voltage weighting vectors keeps unchanged.