Design and fabrication of acoustic matching layer for lead-free ultrasonic flowmeter

• HOTATE Mei

  Nano-Phononics Lab., Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• YOSHIDOME Daichi

  Nano-Phononics Lab., Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• KOJIMA Takahiro

  Nano-Phononics Lab., Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• HOSHINA Takuya

  Nano-Phononics Lab., Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• TAKEDA Hiroaki

  Nano-Phononics Lab., Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

• TSURUMI Takaaki

  Nano-Phononics Lab., Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology

Abstract

We designed and fabricated acoustic matching layers made of a BaTiO₃/epoxy 0–3 composite material for a lead-free ultrasonic flowmeter. Specific acoustic impedance of fabricated 0–3 composite was controlled by changing volume fraction of BaTiO₃ fine particles. When the volume fraction of BaTiO₃ fine particles was 40 vol % or less, sufficiently uniform 0–3 composite materials and various specific acoustic impedances of 2.6–6.9 × 10⁶ kg/m²s were obtained. For improving an accuracy of a lead-free ultrasonic transducer with (K,Na)NbO₃-based ceramics, a pair of acoustic matching layers with a specific acoustic impedance of 6.35 × 10⁶ kg/m²s and a thickness of 0.260 mm were fabricated. By using the fabricated acoustic matching layers in a lead-free ultrasonic flowmeter, the amplitude of output voltage was improved by 35% compared to that using commercialized matching layers. Even in comparison with the commercialized ultrasonic flowmeter with PZT-based materials, the amplitude of output voltage with the fabricated composite matching layers was 83.1%. The lead-free ultrasonic flowmeter with the fabricated composite matching layer had high accuracy of a flow rate error of 3.5% or less. From above results, the effectiveness of the optimized composite matching layers was verified.

Journal

• Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan

  Journal of the Ceramic Society of Japan 123 (1437), 317-321, 2015

  The Ceramic Society of Japan

Keywords

• Ultrasonic flow meter
• Piezoelectric ceramics
• Lead-free
• Acoustic matching layer
• Composite

Details

• CRID: 1390001205287704576
• NII Article ID: 130005068631
• DOI: 10.2109/jcersj2.123.317
• ISSN: 13486535
• ISSN: 18820743
• Web Site: https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jcersj2/123/1437/123_JCSJ-P14233/_pdf
• Text Lang: ja
• Data Source:
  • JaLC
  • Crossref
  • CiNii Articles
  • KAKEN
• Abstract License Flag: Disallowed