Co-design and AI for Innovation in Ultra-sonic Transducers for Underwater Sonar

目前的声纳系统由三个独立的部分组成。这些元素是设备、电子电路和人工智能。这个装置的作用是把声波转换成电信号。它由使用压电材料的换能器和/或接收器组成。电子电路允许设备、人工智能和界面之间的通信。必要时也用于影响电路。人工智能被用来理解信号。这可以通过一系列技术和工具来实现，比如深度学习或创建专门的算法。这些元素可以由不同的公司和行业构建和制造，然后作为一个单一的系统组合在一起工作。偶尔，让上述设备一起有效地运行可能会导致问题，并导致整个系统效率降低。在这个项目中，将设计一个系统，它将封装每个元素，从而形成一个更有效的系统。该博士项目适合工程师、物理学家或材料科学家，将研究如何对这种创新进行表征、理解和编纂，其特定目标是缩短实现创新材料和结构潜力的时间。它将通过积极探索将无铅压电和纹理陶瓷结合到代表性换能器中来实现这一目标。这将在一系列软件平台上利用新的材料表征技术和虚拟原型，实现有限元分析和更简单的工具。

Currently sonar systems consist of three separate elements. These elements are the device, the electronic circuits, and the AI. The device serves the purpose of translating the sound waves into electrical signals. It consists of a transducer and/or receiver that uses piezoelectric material. The electronic circuits allow for communication between the devices, the AI and the interface. It is also used to affect the circuit when necessary. The AI is used to understand the signals. This can be done using a collection of techniques and tools such as deep learning or creating specialised algorithms. These elements can be constructed and made by different companies and industries and are then brought together to work as a single system. Occasionally getting said devices to operate effectively together can cause issues and results in the whole system being less effective. In this project one system will be designed that will encapsulate every element, resulting in a more effective system.This PhD project, which will suit an engineer, physicist or material scientist, will study how such innovation can be characterised, understood and codified, with a particular aim to shorten the time to realise the potential of innovative materials and structures. It will do this through active exploration of incorporation of lead-free piezoelectrics and textured ceramics into representative transducers. This will exploit new material characterisation techniques and virtual prototyping across a range of software platforms implementing finite element analysis and simpler tools.