134 7 Piezo-electric Methods of Generation and Reception

2,

I
I
t- x-

~ 2

Fig. 7.13. As in Fig. 7.12 but with shorter pulse (corresponding to Figs. 7.12a, c and e)
Fig. 7.14. Sound-pressure waves, excited by the voltage U as a function of time, along the axis
of a transducer plate sandwiched between two materials 1 and 2. For reasons of simplicity, the
same sound velocity has been assumed in 1 and 2 and the scale chosen so that the pulse width
is ,the same both in space and in time

pulse of only two oscillations of the characteristic frequency was used for excit-
ation. With b = 1.75 the oscillation of the plate already fails to reach the maximum
value, and build-up and decay already start to overlap. The plate with the greater
damping still transmits the pulse almost undistorted, but with smaller amplitude.
This disadvantage is partially offset by the fact that this plate reaches its oscillation
peak earlier than the less damped plate.
Since short pulses are particularly important in non-destructive testing, the re-
sults of a more rigorous treatment of the piezo-electric plate will now be described,
which makes it possible to construct correctly the pulse of the sound pressure of in-
terest for arbitrary, exciting voltages by using a rather simple and fruitful method
[258, 1246].
Without presenting its derivation, it is recommended that the following, basic
rule concerning piezo-electric plates operated as transmitters be memorized (see
Fig. 7.14):
If an arbitrary voltage is applied to a piezo-electric plate, sound-pressure waves
which show the same chronological pattern as the voltage start simultaneously from
both surfaces. They travel into the plate as well as into the materials coupled to it
externally, but inside the plate their phase is opposite to that outside. Their ampli-
tudes depend on the acoustic impedances of the materials concerned as follows:

Material 1 Material 0 Material 2

(ZI) (Zo) (Z2)
(Piezo-electric plate)
ZI Zo Zo Z2
ZO+ZI ZO+ZI Zo+ Z2 Zo+ Z2

If the waves inside the piezo-electric plate strike the boundary, the well-known
formulae given in Eq. (2.1) apply for their reflection and transmission, together with