Design and Simulation of Flexible Underwater Acoustic Sensor Based on 3D Buckling Structure

The exploration of marine resources has become an essential part of the development of marine strategies of various countries. MEMS vector hydrophone has great application value in the exploration of marine resources. However, existing MEMS vector hydrophones have a narrow frequency bandwidth and are based on rigid substrates, which are not easy to be bent in the array of underwater robots. This paper introduces a new type of flexible buckling crossbeam–cilium flexible MEMS vector hydrophone, arranged on a curved surface by a flexible substrate. A hydrophone model in the fluid domain was established by COMSOL Multiphysics software. A flexible hydrophone with a bandwidth of 20~4992 Hz, a sensitivity of −193.7 dB, excellent “8” character directivity, and a depth of concave point of 41.5 dB was obtained through structured data optimization. This study plays a guiding role in the manufacture and application of flexible hydrophones and sheds light on a new way of marine exploration.