Power ceramic materials for piezocomposite hydrophone

In order to make a sensitive deep underwater hydrophone, 1.3.1 PZT-polymer-air piezocomposites have been experimented with. The stress-transfer is in this case realized through the bending of two metallic armature plates holding the PZT rods, and allows the use of coarse rods. The shear based stress-transfer of a 1.3 piezocomposite, which requires a very thin PZT rod shape, is analysed both in static and dynamic modes. The variation of the sensitivity of the 1.3.1 composites, observed under high pressure, was shown to be related to the PZT material instabilities with the uniaxial stress. This shows that the design of the composite has to take into consideration the behavior of the PZT material in these new working conditions. New stabilized PZT in conjunction with composites appear to be very promising materials