GEARTOOTH PRESSURE SENSOR

HYDRODYNAMIC PRESSURE GENERATED BY MESHING GEARS IN AN OIL BATH CONTRIBUTE TO THE SELF NOISE OF TORPEDOES. AS TARGETS BECOME "QUITER," TORPEDO GUIDANCE SYSTEMS MUST INCREASE THEIR SENSITIVITY TO THE ATTENUATED SOUND WAVES REFLECTED BY THE TARGET. IN BEING MORE SENSITIVE, THEY CAN BE DISTURBED BY THEIR OWN NOISE. AS A RESULT, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND SELF NOISE SOURCES AND MITIGATE THE EFFECTS. THE PROPOSED TRANSDUCER SYSTEM, BASED ON PIEZOELECTRIC PLASTIC FILM AND DATA TELEMETRY, IS SMALL AND THIN ENOUGH TO MEASURE THE HYDRODYNAMIC PRESSURE AT THE GEAR ROOT. THE TRANSDUCER WILL HAVE A LARGE FREQUENCY AND DYNAMIC RANGE. IT WILL ALLOW MEASUREMENTS IN SITU THAT WILL PROVIDE THE DATA NEEDED TO UNDERSTAND AND REDUCE HYDRODYNAMIC PUMPING ACTION NOISE.