Invitation to the 39th Scandinavian Symposium on Physical Acoustics

The 39th Scandinavian Symposium on Physical Acoustics will be held at Geilo Hotel from January 31 to February 3, 2016. This year it is organised by Ulf Kristiansen and Erlend Viggen, both at ARC. The theme for the meeting will as usual be physical acoustics, with emphasis on hydroacoustics, nonlinear acoustics, ultrasound, general sound propagation and applications in technology, medicine and fisheries.

The purpose of these meetings is primarily to stimulate contacts and exchange information between different Scandinavian teams working in this research area. Although the symposium is Scandinavian, foreign participants are most welcome, and the meeting language will be English. As usual, we expect a rather informal tone, the main goal being to create contacts, not only during sessions, but also by social activities, indoors and outdoors (cross country and downhill skiing). The meeting normally attracts about 50 participants holding about 25 talks throughout 5 sessions.

Read more…Invitation to the 39th Scandinavian Symposium on Physical Acoustics

A brief history of electroacoustics, pt. 7:
Loudspeaker enclosures

Reis’ telephone was perhaps the first loudspeaker of any kind, as it employed a magnetostriction driver mounted in a resonating box. But it would still take many years before inventors discovered the virtues of baffles and enclosures. As Hunt puts it, the baffle is probably the most frequently rediscovered feature of loudspeaker art. Stokes, in 1868, pointed out that the radiation efficiency could be improved by preventing air circulation around the edges of a vibrating surface (the acoustic short-circuit). Rayleigh, a few years later, gave the now classic analysis of the radiation from a piston in an infinite baffle. But by the time loudspeakers were being produced in great numbers, Rayleigh’s Theory of Sound had been out of print for more than two decades, and many inventors discovered the baffle before they discovered Rayleigh.

Read more…A brief history of electroacoustics, pt. 7:
Loudspeaker enclosures

Predicting aircraft noise annoyance

Aircraft Noise Annoyance

Noise is, by its very definition, annoying. Intuitively, lots of noise is more annoying than noise that is barely audible. Therefore, the concept of «tolerance» is important: Given the noise situation, can we predict people’s annoyance with this noise?

To answer this question, we first need ways to quantify both annoyance and noise. Annoyance is an emotion, but that does not mean it is not measurable. Researchers have developed very specific questions and answer scales that allow for international comparison of people’s annoyance with specific types of noise.

Read more…Predicting aircraft noise annoyance

Prøveforelesning på mandag

Nå på mandag holder jeg prøveforelesning i forbindelse med professorstillingen etter Ulf. Den har ikke blitt annonsert veldig tydelig av IET, men her er en antydning:

Prøveforelesning: «Aeroacoustic sound generation mechanisms» i Elektro B418 på mandag 14/9 kl 1015-11 anbefales for fysikkstudenter som vurderer å ta et eller flere akustikkemner – og for alle andre som vil lære noe om hvordan lyd skapes. Eksempler er hentet fra NTNU og SINTEF akustikkmiljøet: Syngende rør i oljeindustrien, støy fra nye F35 jagerfly, og også noen mye mer nærliggende eksempel. Dermed er dette også en anledning til å bli litt kjent med akustikkmiljøet i Trondheim.

For de med teoretisk fokus kan det tilføyes at teorien er knyttet til beskrivelse av turbulens – et fenomen som er utfordrende å modellere og forstå. Her kan det nevnes at blant annet teorien for kritiske fenomener og faseoverganger fra statistisk mekanikk brukes (e.g. «Universality of rare fluctuations in turbulence and critical phenomena», Nature 1998). Forelesningen her vil imidlertid holdes elementært (MSc course in engineering acoustics level) med vekt på konkrete eksempel. Rommet B418 er et lunsjrom, så det er begrenset plass.

Det vil være fint om noen flere enn komiteen er tilhørere. I tillegg kan det hende at noen av dere synes temaet er artig; det er det!

Vi åpner SINTEFs akustikklab under Forskningsdagene 2015!

I forbindelse med Forskningsdagene 2015 åpner vi akustikklaben til SINTEF for alle som vil se og høre. I denne laben, som du ser avbildet på toppen av denne nettsida, har vi så mange og så kraftige høyttalere at vi til og med kan gjenskape lyden av et helikopter som lander rett ved deg.

Har du lyst til å komme en tur? Det er i Strindvegen 4 det skjer, mellom klokka 13:00 og 13:45 den 16. september.

Trykk her for å melde deg på!

Illustrasjonsfoto: Geir Mogen / SINTEF

Ørepluggenes ufortjent dårlige rykte

De siste årene har det vært et økt fokus på hvordan musikkspillere kan skade hørselen. WHO gikk i vår ut og sa at over 1 milliard ungdommer står i fare for å få hørselsskader som følge av for høy musikk på ørene. I den forbindelse har det stadig vekk vært slått opp i media, både nasjonalt og internasjonalt, at man bør unngå å bruke øreplugger, såkalte «earbuds» eller «in-ears».

Read more…Ørepluggenes ufortjent dårlige rykte

A brief history of electroacoustics, pt. 6:
Various loudspeaker mechanisms

The invention of the telephone set off a wave of creativity, and almost all conceivable transducer mechanisms were tried out in the 1870s and 80s. Some of them developed into usable devices, others serve mainly as illustrations of man’s creativity. In this part, some of them will be presented, ranging from useful, mainstream designs to the downright bizarre.

Read more…A brief history of electroacoustics, pt. 6:
Various loudspeaker mechanisms

MAUS i media

I løpet av denne uka har vi vært i media med MAUS-prosjektet, som handler om auralisering av utendørs støy. En sak om prosjektet, skrevet av Åse Dragland, har blitt publisert tre steder på norsk:

Saken har også blitt oversatt og publisert i flere internasjonale medier. Du finner en liste nedenfor.

I tillegg har Erlend og Jakob vært i Norgesglasset på P1 og vist fram og snakket om verktøyet. Du kan høre klippet her, men raska på; klippet er bare tilgjengelig i seks måneder.

Read more…MAUS i media

A brief history of electroacoustics, pt. 5:
Moving coil loudspeakers of lasting impact

In Part 4, we looked at various early variants of moving coil (or moving conductor) loudspeakers, including predecessors of the modern moving coil cone driver. In this part I will present two specific designs that made a lasting impact on loudspeaker technology. One is a direct radiator; the other is a horn driver.

In the early part of the 1920s, many researchers were working on loudspeakers, based on various principles. E.C. Wente at the Western Electric Engineering Department (to become the Bell Telephone Laboratories) worked on a small direct radiating moving coil loudspeaker that was later patented (US patent 1812389, filed April 1, 1925 and granted the same date 1935). In England, Paul Gustavus Adolphus Helmuth Voigt at Edison Bell also worked on moving coil loudspeakers and microphones. In May 1924, he applied for a patent on a moving coil loudspeaker, but unfortunately a little to late. He was beaten at the finish line by two engineers at the General Electric Company, C.W. Rice and E.W. Kellogg.

Read more…A brief history of electroacoustics, pt. 5:
Moving coil loudspeakers of lasting impact

How do you imitate the sound of traffic?

We previously wrote about the MAUS project, where we are building an auralisation tool to simulate the sound from virtual noise sources outdoors in order to give a realistic representation of how a future noise source will sound when it has been developed. One such noise source that we have been working on is traffic, one of the biggest issues in environmental acoustics. But how do you simulate the sound of traffic on a computer?

Read more…How do you imitate the sound of traffic?