An approach towards improving the efficiency of sonar projector arrays

One of the high-power limitations encountered in modern sonar systems is caused by the mutual interaction effect among the densely packed elements of projector arrays. This causes severe and complex effects at higher drive levels. This effect can be minimized by restructuring the array format with suitable selection of appropriate interelement spacing. The design considerations of uniform linear projector array formats that minimize the mutual interaction effect are presented. The radiation pattern and array gain of the proposed array are found to be improved, as far as certain signal and noise models are concerned