TY - JOUR
T1 - Machined phononic crystals to block high-order Lamb waves and crosstalk in through-metal ultrasonic communication systems
AU - Sugino, Christopher
AU - Gerbe, Romain
AU - Baca, Ehren
AU - Reinke, Charles
AU - Ruzzene, Massimo
AU - Erturk, Alper
AU - El-Kady, Ihab
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Author(s).
PY - 2022/5/9
Y1 - 2022/5/9
N2 - For systems that require complete metallic enclosures (e.g., containment buildings for nuclear reactors), it is impossible to access interior sensors and equipment using standard electromagnetic techniques. A viable way to communicate and supply power through metallic barriers is the use of elastic waves and ultrasonic transducers, introducing several design challenges that must be addressed. Specifically, the use of multiple communication channels on the same enclosure introduces an additional mechanism for signal crosstalk between channels: guided waves propagating in the barrier between channels. This work numerically and experimentally investigates a machined phononic crystal to block MHz Lamb wave propagation between ultrasonic communication channels, greatly reducing wave propagation and the resulting crosstalk voltage. Blind grooves are machined into one or both sides of a metallic barrier to introduce a periodic unit cell, greatly altering the guided wave dispersion in the barrier. Numerical simulations are used to determine a set of groove geometries for testing, and experiments were performed to characterize the wave-blocking performance of each design. The best-performing design was tested using piezoelectric transducers bonded to the barrier, showing a 14.4 dB reduction in crosstalk voltage. The proposed periodic grooving method is a promising technique for completely isolating ultrasonic power/data transfer systems operating in a narrow frequency range.
AB - For systems that require complete metallic enclosures (e.g., containment buildings for nuclear reactors), it is impossible to access interior sensors and equipment using standard electromagnetic techniques. A viable way to communicate and supply power through metallic barriers is the use of elastic waves and ultrasonic transducers, introducing several design challenges that must be addressed. Specifically, the use of multiple communication channels on the same enclosure introduces an additional mechanism for signal crosstalk between channels: guided waves propagating in the barrier between channels. This work numerically and experimentally investigates a machined phononic crystal to block MHz Lamb wave propagation between ultrasonic communication channels, greatly reducing wave propagation and the resulting crosstalk voltage. Blind grooves are machined into one or both sides of a metallic barrier to introduce a periodic unit cell, greatly altering the guided wave dispersion in the barrier. Numerical simulations are used to determine a set of groove geometries for testing, and experiments were performed to characterize the wave-blocking performance of each design. The best-performing design was tested using piezoelectric transducers bonded to the barrier, showing a 14.4 dB reduction in crosstalk voltage. The proposed periodic grooving method is a promising technique for completely isolating ultrasonic power/data transfer systems operating in a narrow frequency range.
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U2 - 10.1063/5.0083380
DO - 10.1063/5.0083380
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85130093071
SN - 0003-6951
VL - 120
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
IS - 19
M1 - 191705
ER -