Multi-resonance flextensional hydrophone for open-circuit scuba diver detection

Abstract

A multi-resonance Cymbal hydrophone for detection of the open-circuit self-contained underwater breathing apparatus (scuba) diver was designed and fabricated in this work, which has the advantages of multi-resonant frequency, high sensitivity, and narrow bandwidth. By using standard hydrophones, the underwater acoustic signal of the open-circuit scuba diver in the pool was collected and the characteristics of the signal were analyzed: the signal was mainly distributed in high frequency and low frequency. According to this characteristic, a Cymbal hydrophone with multi-resonance frequencies was designed in the finite element method, and the resonant frequency, receiving sensitivity, and bandwidth of the hydrophone were calculated. The accuracy of the calculation was verified with the performance test of the prototypes fabricated in this work. Finally, the underwater acoustic signal of an open-circuit scuba diver in the pool was tested by the prototype to demonstrate that the multi-resonance Cymbal hydrophone developed in this paper can be used for open-circuit scuba diver detection.