The radial vibration transducer based on the matching layer shell was designed. The influences of the material of the matching layer, the diameter of the transducer and the thickness of the piezoelectric vibrator on the modal shape of the transducer were investigated. Due to the optimal modal shape at the design frequency, the design parameters of the transducer were optimized. The results show that the emission efficiency of the transducer in air medium is greatly improved by the resin based matching layer. As the diameter of transducer decreases and the thickness of piezoelectric vibrator increases, the excitation efficiency of radial vibration transducer increases. The optimized transducer diameter is 100 mm, and the thickness of piezoelectric vibrator is 10 mm. It can achieve high efficiency and high quality vibration assisted lapping when it works at the third resonance frequency of 34 729 Hz.