4.2.3. Display/Storage Module

Using this module, users may configure the acquisition channel, sampling rate, and amplitude range of an acquired signal. Data in the time–frequency domain acquired by the digitizer are sent to the interface panel through a USB port. These data can be displayed on screen in real-time or stored for later analysis. The format of the acquired data can be in either simple text or in a binary form.

## 4.2.4. Motion/Rotation Module

This module automatically initializes the position and direction of the source/receiver transducers, which means the sliding unite moves to the zero position and the steering engines return to the direction of zero degrees. Users can configure the stepping distance of the sliding unit and the rotation angle of the steering engine by entering specific parameters on the interface control panel. The available stepping distance is 0.0 to 3000.0 mm and the range of the rotating angle of the steering engine is 0 to 360 degrees.

## *4.3. System Workflow*

Through the control panel with a graphic interface, users can manage the operation of the mechanical and electric hardware; complete data acquisition; and perform calculations, analysis, display, and storage of the measured data.

The first step is to perform a system alignment through the control panel operation. Based on the specific need of a given measurement, users may send a specific command to the microcontroller to initialize the system. The stepping motors and steering engines are adjusted on the sliding trails to achieve a specific setting in the vertical and horizontal directions, as well as a set angle relative to the horizontal plane. This operation will make the source/receiver transducers move to a desired position and rotate to a set direction for the acoustic measurement.

Through the control panel, users may send a command to the electric-signal generator to send an electric source signal to the power amplifier, e.g., a gated sinusoidal wave, a square wave, etc. The amplified electric signal excites the source transducer to emit an acoustic signal outward. The acoustic signal then propagates to the receiver through a specific medium or a measured object. Finally, by going through the receiver transducer, the acoustic signal can be converted to an electric signal. The final output is acquired by a high-resolution, high-sampling-rate digitizer and sent back to the computer for display, calculation, analysis, and storage.

The two specially fabricated piezoelectric PZT-5H thin-cylindrical transducers were set to be polarized in the radial direction. They had the same geometrical structure, size, and inner radius. The radius, thickness, and height of the transducers were 20.5 mm, 3 mm, and 50 mm, respectively.

The center frequencies of the thin cylindrical transducers measured using an impedance analyzer PV90A (Bander Electronics Co., Ltd., Beijing, 244021, China) were 20.7520 kHz and 19.6780 kHz with a mechanical load, as shown in Figure 4, as noted by the two five-pointed stars, while the calculated center frequency of the source transducer with a mechanical load was at 20.5180 kHz (see Figure 5). The center frequencies of these two cylindrical transducers were slightly di fferent and close to the center frequency found from the theoretical calculations. We contributed the center frequency di fference between the two cylindrical transducers to manufacturing imperfection.

We assembled the cylindrical transducers in a silencing tank filled with water, one as a source transducer and the other as a receiver transducer. The distance between the transducers was set to be 1.0 m. A gated sinusoidal electric signal was generated by a command from the control panel to the waveform generator. Powered by an amplifier, the sinusoidal electric signal provided excitation to the source transducer to emit an acoustic signal. The measured acoustic signal in the time and frequency domains are shown as the dotted lines in Figure 10, i.e., the electric signal at the electric terminals of the receiver transducer. The center frequency of the signal at the electrical terminals of the receiver transducer was analyzed and compared between the theoretical calculation and experimental measurement, which yielded 20.5000 kHz and 19.4440 kHz, respectively. These values are somewhat di fferent from those of the source transducer. This small discrepancy was likely the result of the acoustic–electric filtering e ffect on acoustic signal arriving at the receiver transducer.

As shown in Figure 10, the shapes of the waveform and the amplitude spectrum of the measured acoustic signal had a noticeable discrepancy from those of the theoretical calculations, even though there was good qualitative agreements in form and shape. Another likely culprit was that only half of the surrounding area of the transducer was receiving the acoustic signal from the source transducer in a nonuniform manner (see Figure 13).

## **5. Final Remarks**

Through modeling, calculation, and experimental measurements, we achieved an enhanced understanding of the transient responses of the electric–acoustic and acoustic–electric conversions based on the piezoelectric cylindrical transducers, which are widely used in petroleum acoustic logging.

For cylindrical transducers, the process of electric–acoustic conversion is the reciprocal process of acoustic–electric conversion. In the processes of these conversions, there are three possible mathematical solutions corresponding to three di fferent physical states, i.e., overdamping, critical-damping, and the oscillatory mode. Practically, the oscillatory mode is the only physically meaningful state for the piezoelectric cylindrical transducers.

For signal conversions, the driving signals applied to stimulate the transducers contained multiple frequency components. This was the reality for both the driving electric signal to the transducer's electric terminals and the acoustic signal to its mechanical terminals. Meanwhile, each frequency component was processed independently and the overall signal transmission was achieved as a superposition of all the individual processes. To achieve this goal, we constructed an equivalent circuits network, where each circuit processed an individual frequency component.

In constructing the circuits for the cylindrical transducers, we noted that radiation resistance and radiation mass were functions of the frequency. One of the simplest processes was to establish a set of equivalent circuits under the harmonic vibrational motions. The acoustic-measurement process could be viewed as a transmission system network with multiple parallel-connected equivalent circuits.

To achieve an enhanced understanding of the electric–acoustic and acoustic–electric conversions, we need to explore many important conversion properties, e.g., the impulse response, amplitude spectrum, center frequency, and more. These properties are influenced not only by the physical and geometrical parameters of the transducer, and the physical parameters of the transition medium, but also by the property and type of the driving electric signal. Obviously, the measured acoustic signal in both the time and frequency domains are dependent on the electric–acoustic and acoustic–electric conversion property and the properties of the driving electric signal.

The directivity of the thin cylindrical transducers can be significant for acoustic measurement. Unlike the spherical shell transducers, which are polarized in the radial direction, the directivity is a unique property of the thin cylindrical transducers, which provides a none-ignorable influence on the measured acoustic signal. It influences the optimal e ffective radiation area of the thin cylindrical transducers, which varies with the height of the cylindrical transducers.

In summary, for a transient response and relevant physical properties of the piezoelectric, thin cylindrical transducers used in petroleum acoustic logging tools, we established a new transient response model and developed a corresponding measurement system to perform an experimental check on the theoretical calculations. The newly developed experimental system had a high measurement resolution and a high sampling rate, which was able to achieve a considerable measurement precision. It should be able to be applied for both scientific research and for industrial applications.

**Supplementary Materials:** The following are available online at http://www.mdpi.com/2072-666X/10/12/ 804/s1, Figure S1: Hardware of acoustic measurement system, Figure S2: Softwave interface of acoustic measurement system.

**Author Contributions:** L.F. and M.Z. designed the project, performed theoretical derivation, wrote proofread the paper. H.Q. performed the measurement of the center frequency of the cylindrical transducers. N.T., Y.W., and K.S. programmed the software management and calculations. Y.Z., M.L., and X.F. performed experimental measurement and analysis.

**Funding:** This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41974130) and by the Physical Sciences Division at The University of Chicago.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.