Category: (((—Acoustics Engineering—))))

  • Applications

    Some of the most common practical applications of sound intensity measurements are now discussed. In 1978, Chung and Pope demonstrated that using a two‐microphone probe that sound intensity could be measured both (i) at fixed points in the near field (2.5 cm) from a loudspeaker source and (ii) at 12 points on a hemisphere of 1 m radius…

  • Measurement of Sound Intensity

    The measurement of sound intensity is much more complicated than the measurement of sound pressure. In general, it requires the simultaneous measurement of sound pressure and particle velocity. This needs the use of at least two transducers. There are currently three main methods in use: The first p–p method is well established and has been in use…

  • Active and Reactive Sound Fields

    As already discussed, in a one‐dimensional pure tone plane progressive wave the sound pressure and particle velocity are everywhere in phase for all values of time. The same situation exists far from idealized point sources of sound (monopoles, dipoles, quadrupoles, etc.) since the wave front curvature decreases and the surface becomes almost planar (flat) far…

  • Characteristics of Sound Fields

    Many different types of sound fields are encountered in practice. The sound field near to a simple point sound source has certain well‐known characteristics. However, sound fields generated by many simultaneously operating independent sources have much more complicated characteristics. A reverberant sound field, which is created when sources operate in spaces with hard wall surfaces,…

  • Theoretical Background

    Sound fields are usually described in terms of sound pressure, which is the quantity we hear. However, sound fields are also energy fields, in which kinetic and potential acoustic energies are generated, transmitted, and dissipated. The acoustic energy in a sound field is not only of interest theoretically, but it is of practical importance as…

  • Historical Developments in the Measurement of Sound Pressure and Sound Intensity

    It is hard to realize that engineers and scientists have only been able to make quantitative acoustical field measurements with transducers for the last century. It is true that many scientists had previously been making qualitative acoustical studies. Osborne Reynolds describes the use of bells, the human voice and ear in his studies of acoustical…

  • Introduction

    Sound intensity is a measure of the magnitude and direction of the flow of sound energy. Although acousticians have attempted to measure sound intensity as long ago as the early 1870s, the first reliable measurement of sound intensity did not occur until over one hundred years later in the late 1970s. Then the convergence of…

  • Signal Analysis, Data Processing, and Specialized Noise and Vibration Measurements

    7.6.1 Signal Analysis and Data Processing Sound and vibration signals produced by transducers are not normally in a suitable form for the study of noise and vibration problems. Frequency analysis is the most common approach used in the solution of such problems. This is because the human ear acts in many ways like a frequency…

  • alibration, Metrology, and Traceability of Shock and Vibration Transducers

    Vibration measurements of acceleration, velocity, and displacement can be classified in two main ways: (i) relative measurements made between two points with systems such as laser Doppler interferometers and (ii) absolute measurements made with seismic mass transducers (mainly accelerometers). The calibration of transducers used for both types of measurement is described in detail in Ref.…

  • Measurement Difficulties

    Piezoelectric accelerometers produce some output signal when subjected to acoustic signals or base strains. Normally, the acoustic sensitivity is low (producing an apparent acceleration of smaller than 1 g for a sound pressure level of 160 dB). As the test object vibrates, it will induce strain in the accelerometer base with a consequent output signal. Most accelerometer bases are…