Robert D. Corsaro
Brian Houstono
Naval Res. Lab., Code 7130, Washington, DC 20375-5350
The ABC research platform consists of a large array of multifunctional transducers mounted on a backing structure. It was specifically constructed for underwater studies of sensor/actuator coupling mechanisms. The platform transducers are represented as a 15 tile array of ABC tiles, where each tile contains a large area actuator, pressure sensor, and velocity sensor, where the latter is constructed by summing and integrating the outputs of four accelerometers. Acoustic characteristics of the ABC tiles and platform were evaluated in the NRL Large Pool Facility, both in the freefield and when mounted on a backing structure. This paper presents results and analysis of inter- and intra-tile coupling mechanisms, including particularly an evaluation of the role of the backing structure.