Torpedo sonar comprising a plurality of acoustic transducers
AssigneeL-3 Communications Elac Nautik GmbH
InventorJoerg Schmidt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
For reducing the number of acoustic transducers required by a torpedo sonar for target searching, the transducers are arranged in four particular zones at the curved contour of the torpedo bow forming a conformal sonar array. The circular first zone covers the vertex region of the torpedo bow and is surrounded by a ring-shaped second zone. Extending from the second zone on both sides of the torpedo are third lateral transition zones, which change over into fourth lateral zones of constant width ending at the great circle of the hemispherical or paraboloid-shaped torpedo head.
Claims12
A torpedo sonar apparatus comprising a plurality of acoustic transducers arranged in several zones along the curved surface of the torpedo bow, such that
- a) a circular first zone covers the vertex region of the torpedo bow;
- b) a ring-shaped second zone surrounds said first zone;
- c) a lateral third zone is provided on each side of the torpedo yaw axis, said third zones extending from said second zone backwards but ending before reaching the great circle of the torpedo head;
- and
- d) a lateral fourth zone on each side of the torpedo yaw axis extends between said third zone and said great circle, each of a plurality of said zones having respective groups of said transducers in spaced-apart relationship and distributed over the respective zones.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.