IMAGE ACOUSTICS, INC.
FEAR – Finite Elemental Analysis of a Ring Transducer
FEAR is a FEA program
that creates, controls, and analyzes a 3D ring transducer. No FEA experience is necessary as the program
is designed to be very user-friendly. The
entire program is managed in 1 MATLAB GUI. This 1 window allows the user to
quickly and easily control the program.
Inputs include dropdown boxes listing numerous active material options
for the piezoelectric ring. Appropriate dimensions are clearly presented for
adjustment. The ring can be modeled in
the 31 or 33 mode either air backed or free flooded. Air backed implies air is in the center of
the ring. TVR and FFVS values are plotted for 0, 30, 60, and 90 degree cases.
Prior to running the model through ANSYS, MATLAB will provide a 2d axisymmetric
sketch of the design. When prompted by
the user, MATLAB tells ANSYS to perform the analysis via batch mode. Batch mode allows for greater efficiency and
the user does not have to interface with ANSYS at all. When ANSYS is complete, an excel spreadsheet
of the results is created which MATLAB reads to bring the results to the
GUI. All of these actions are
"behind the scenes". Plots are
also created and an image of the FEA model is available to view in MATLAB.
FEAR comes with 1 MATLAB
file and a text file for assistance.
Only 1 MATLAB file is required to run the program. All other files are generated automatically
as needed by FEAR. Thus, they can be deleted at any time. Furthermore, a save and load feature is in
place to quickly describe inputs and outputs.
This model is axisymmetric in nature for fast analysis. By default, inputs are set up so the program
can run on ANSYS ED. For larger element
sizes, the full version of ANSYS is required.
Support and updates will be instituted as necessary.
System Requirements:
Windows Operating System, MATLAB 2007 or greater,
Microsoft Excel, ANSYS and/or ANSYS ED.
Figure 1: FEAR Interface with ANSYS
running.
Figure 2: TVR results from Figure 1.