Installation manual

Transducer Installation
Not only will the sound transmission be blocked, but the
transducer may be damaged by slamming against the sea surface.
Another reason to go deep is cavitation in front of high power
transducers. Cavitation is the formation of small bubbles in the
water due to the resulting local pressure becoming negative
during parts of the acoustic pressure cycles. The cavitation
threshold increases with the hydrostatic pressure.
Vessel heave
Heave is the up and down movement of the vessel. It disturbs the
echo traces in the echogram, so that a fl at bottom is displayed
as a wave. A transducer location in the middle of the vessel
minimises the influence of vessel roll and pitch.
Noise from protruding objects on the hull
Objects protruding from the hull, such as zinc anodes, sonar
transducers or even the vessel’s keel, generate turbulence and
flow noise. Also holes and pipe outlets are noise sources. They
may act as resonant cavities amplifying the fl ow noise at certain
frequencies. Do not place an echo sounder transducer in the
vicinity of such objects, and especially not close behind them.
For the same reason, it is very important that the hull area around
the transducer face is as smooth and level as possible. Even
traces of sealing compound, sharp edges, protruding bolts or bolt
holes without filling compound will create noise.
Boundary water layer
When the vessel forces its way through the sea, the friction
between the hull and the water creates a boundary layer. The
thickness of the boundary layer depends upon vessel speed and
the roughness of the hull. Objects protruding from the hull, and
dents in the hull, disturb the flow and i ncrease t he thickness of
the boundary layer. The flow in this boundary layer may be
laminar or turbulent. A laminar flow is a nicely ordered, parallel
movement of the water. A turbulent flow has a disorderly pattern,
full of eddies. The boundary layer increases in thickness when the
flow goes from laminar to turbulent. The figure below illustrates
the boundary layer of a vessel moving through the water.
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