126 7 Piezo-electric Methods of Generation and Reception

cles are always at rest. If the displacement of the particles at a series of instants 0 to
8 are plotted at right angles to the axis of the plate, as shown in Fig. 7.6, the result is
a group of sinusoidal curves having different amplitudes. This phenomenon is well
known to us and constitutes a standing wave as explained in Fig. 1.5. It can be
thought of as consisting of two waves running in opposite directions through the
plate, but at the same frequency. Therefore the thickness oscillation of a plate can
be described by a plane wave which is reflected at the fIrst surface with opposite
phase (because it is the boundary with an acoustically soft medium), and being re-
flected again at the opposite surface, once more with a phase reversal. Thus it un-
dergoes a phase shift equal to a full wavelength, and so meets itself in phase.
Using a sound velocity for longitudinal waves c in the plate material, its thick-
ness d equals
A. c
d=-=- (7.4)
2 2/0
and hence the characteristic or natural or fundamental frequency of the plate is
c
10=U' (7.5)

A thickness oscillation may also be achieved by transverse waves. For each case,
using values for barium titanate (type P 2) ceramic, we obtain:
/01 = 2.60/d MHz,
(7.6)
lOt = O.98/d MHz

with the thickness expressed in millimetres.

+~:
t ::
m
, I I

:08
1 7

~ : 2-6-:1:

l
-,
l
I
3 5
I If
+
t
, I fi

4J
T
I I I
,,I
, I
,, I
2. '1-. Natural oscillation

Fig. 7.6. Fundamental thickness oscillation of a plate. Displacement of the particles plotted at
equal time intervals, 0 to 8, perpendicular to the axis of the plate
Fig.7.7. Higher harmonics of a plate. Particle displacement at time zero as in Fig. 7.6.