Hybrid Equivalent Circuit/Finite Element/Boundary Element Modeling for Effective Analysis of an Acoustic Transducer Array with Flexible Surrounding Structures

Abstract

Transducer arrays are commonly analyzed by the finite element method (FEM) with high accuracy, but it is costly, particularly when having flexible surrounding structures. In this study, we developed an equivalent circuit (EC)-based model of an array of transducers with flexible surrounding structures for effective analysis. The impedance matrix was first constructed by coupling the electrical, mechanical impedance, and the acoustic radiation impedance obtained by the EC method and finite element-boundary element (FE-BE) coupling method. The transfer matrix of far-field pressure to the transducer response was then constructed by the FE-BE coupling method, and finally the sound pressure of the external acoustic field was obtained. To verify the accuracy, the results of the proposed method were compared with those of the conventional FEM. To evaluate the efficiency of the proposed method, the reduction in the degrees of freedom (DOFs) of the proposed method from the conventional FEM analysis was investigated. The simulation results of the proposed method are highly accurate and efficient. The proposed method is expected to be useful for conceptual design.