Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Acoustics and physics”

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a more effective method of monitoring cetaceans’ distribution and abundance than conventional visual surveys. Cetaceans are highly vocally active and produce identifiable acoustic signals during echolocation and communication. Three different PAM platforms recorded data in overlapping time periods in the vicinity of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill site: bottom-moored buoys (EARS), Unmanned Surface Vehicle towed arrays (USV), and subsurface glider-mounted hydrophones. Detection rates of the EARS and USV were compared to investigate their efficiency in detecting marine mammals. Detection events were obtained using independent detectors for each platform and then compared by feeding data through a common detector. Results from both detectors and platforms were compared, and a comparable trend of detection rates was found. The purpose of this study is to aid in the development of cost-efficient PAM methodology for mitigation and environmental impact assessment purposes.

This dissertation reports studies of the internal structure of jammed granular materials and how granular sound propagation and vibrational modes are influenced by disorder in particle positions and contact forces. We investigate the role of particle scale forces on sound amplitude and speed, how to characterize the bulk pressure via the density of states, and force network modularity. We perform our experiments on a vertical, 2D, photoelastic granular material. Acoustic waves are excited from the bottom of the system and observed via particle scale sensors and a high speed camera. This novel combination of spatial and temporal measurements allows us to observe the role of force chains in sound propagation. The sound amplitude is largest through particles with strong contact forces, and we see that sound travels fastest along high force paths, giving rise to multiple sound speeds. Combining acoustic excitations with a method from thermal physics, we developed a new method to measure the density of modes, D(f). From D( f), we define a critical frequency, f_c, that scales with the bulk pressure, and comparing D( f) to Debye scaling, we find an excess of low frequency modes. Disorder in the force chain network and particle configurations plays a crucial role in D(f), as Debye scaling is only recovered for high pressure, hexagonally ordered packings. Finally, we characterize the force network by dividing it into modules of highly connected nodes. These communities become progressively more ordered as the pressure on the system is increased and the force chains become more uniform. Together, these studies illustrate the importance of the force chains in understanding static and dynamic granular properties.

Gran Duo (1999-2000) by Magnus Lindberg (b. 1958) is the result of a commission by Sir Simon Rattle, former conductor of the City of Birmingham (England) Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Festival Hall to commemorate the third millennium. Composed for twenty-four woodwinds and brass, Lindberg divides the woodwind and brass families into eight characters that serve as participants in an attentive twenty-minute conversation.

The document includes biographical information about the composition to further understand Lindberg’s writing style. The composer’s use of computer-assisted composition techniques inspires an alternative structural analysis of Gran Duo. Spectral graphs provide a supplementary tool for score study assisting with the verification of formal structural elements. A tempo chart allows the conductor to easily identify form and tempo relationships between each of the nineteen sections throughout the five-movement composition.

In order to reveal character areas and their relation to the structure of the work, the analysis of texture, timbre, and rhythm reveal the formal structure of the composition, which reflects a conversation between the brass and woodwinds in this setting for wind instruments.

The purpose of this thesis is to share the process behind the development of an approach to composing for central Javanese gamelans that utilizes vertical harmony. This paper will include my history with Javanese gamelan, work on the development of a piano tuning that would work with a gamelan, compositional works that led to the development of the system, a study of existing Javanese gamelan tunings, and a presentation of intervallic relationships and cadences that can be utilized with any gamelan. All of this is done with hope that others who may take interest in writing for central Javanese gamelan will have a new tool at their disposal, and to pique the interest of others in the rich world of possibilities that exist within the instruments.

There is also an explanation of the process of developing a piano tuning to be used with a traditional gamelan to perform the Concerto for PIano And Javanese Gamelan by Lou Harrison.

There is some brief discussion on the cognition of interval, and how the brain simplifies complex intervals, and begins to hear them as more simple intervals.

This dissertation describes experiments in spherical Couette devices, using both gas and liquid sodium. The experimental geometry is motivated by the Earth's outer core, the seat of the geodynamo, and consists of an outer spherical shell and an inner sphere, both of which can be rotated independently to drive a shear flow in the fluid lying between them. In the case of experiments with liquid sodium, we apply DC axial magnetic fields, with a dominant dipole or quadrupole component, to the system. We measure the magnetic field induced by the flow of liquid sodium using an external array of Hall effect magnetic field probes, as well as two probes inserted into the fluid volume. This gives information about possible velocity patterns present, and we extend previous work categorizing flow states, noting further information that can be extracted from the induced field measurements. The limitations due to a lack of direct velocity measurements prompted us to work on developing the technique of using acoustic modes to measure zonal flows. Using gas as the working fluid in our 60 cm diameter spherical Couette experiment, we identified acoustic modes of the container, and obtained excellent agreement with theoretical predictions. For the case of uniform rotation of the system, we compared the acoustic mode frequency splittings with theoretical predictions for solid body flow, and obtained excellent agreement. This gave us confidence in extending this work to the case of differential rotation, with a turbulent flow state. Using the measured splittings for this case, our colleagues performed an inversion to infer the pattern of zonal velocities within the flow, the first such inversion in a rotating laboratory experiment. This technique holds promise for use in liquid sodium experiments, for which zonal flow measurements have historically been challenging.

This thesis is about the process behind building, tuning, and composing music for a new set of metallophones called the "Lightbulb" instruments. This project began in 2011 and has continued to expand over the past two years: the first piece to be written for the instruments is titled Prana, and this thesis describes how the process of building and tuning the instruments informed the compositional process behind Prana. The premiere of Prana led to the formation of the Lightbulb Ensemble, which performs on these new instruments. The instruments and the group continue to develop.

Wind turbine noise at low frequencies less than 300Hz is not only annoying to humans but has been proven to cause serious health issues. Additionally, animals are severely affected by wind turbines because a small increase in ambient noise (as is produced by wind turbines) significantly reduces their listening ability. In an attempt to better understand and characterize the aerodynamic noise of wind turbine blades, experimental testing was completed on PowerWorks 100kW and GudCraft WG700 blade specimens in the University of California, Davis Transportation Noise Control Center's anechoic chamber. Experimental testing and data analysis proved approximately 4.0dB to 6.0dB was produced due to the blades' geometric design for both blade specimens at low frequencies. This noise was maximized at the blades' leading edge along the central portion of the blades' radius. Theoretical prediction models have been used to determine that, for typical wind speeds and low frequencies, noise generated due to the tip passing frequency is clearly predominant.

The field of shock physics as a whole has only recently begun to pay particular attention to modeling heterogeneous materials under shock loading. These materials are important because of their practicality in terms of creating stronger, more shock resistant materials. To understand why they absorb shock impact energy better than homogeneous materials means that the small-scale processes that occur during the shock loading of these heterogeneous materials needs to be understood. Recent computational experiments, called mesoscale simulations, have shown that explicitly incorporating small-scale heterogeneous features into hydrocode simulations allows the bulk shock response of the heterogeneous material to be observed while not requiring the use of empirically determined constitutive equations. Including these features in simulations can offer insights into the irreversible mechanisms that dominate the propagation of shock waves in heterogeneous materials.

Three cases where the mesoscale approach for modeling the dynamic shock loading of heterogeneous materials are presented. These materials fall into three categories: granular - dry sand, granular with binder - concrete, and granular contained in a metal foam with a binder - granular explosive contained in an aluminum foam. The processes in which shock waves propagate through each material are addressed and relationships between the three materials are discussed. Particle velocity profiles for dry sand and concrete was obtained from Harvard University and Eglin Air Force Base, respectively. Mesoscale simulations using CTH are conducted for each type of heterogeneous material and the results are compared to the experimental data.

The study described in this thesis aims to assess the effects of wind-generated noise on potential infrasound measurements on future Mars missions. Infrasonic sensing on Mars is being considered as a means to probe the long-scale atmospheric dynamics, thermal balance, and also to infer bolide impact statistics. In this study, a preliminary framework for predicting the principal wind noise mechanisms to the signal detected by a sensor placed inside a hemispherical porous dome on the Martian surface is developed. The method involves calculating the pressure power density spectra in the infrasonic range generated by turbulent interactions and filtered by dome shaped filters of varying porosities. Knowing the overall noise power spectrum will allow it to be subtracted from raw signals of interest and aid in the development of infrasound sensors for the Martian environment. In order to make these power spectral predictions, the study utilizes the Martian Climate Database (MCD) global circulation model, developed by Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique in Paris, France. Velocity profiles are generated and used in semi empirical functions generated by von Kármán along with equations for describing the physical turbulent interactions. With these, turbulent interactions in the free atmosphere above the Martian surface are described. For interactions of turbulence with the porous filter, semi-empirical formulations are adapted to the Martian parameters generated by the MCD and plotted alongside contributions in the free atmosphere outside and inside the dome to obtain the total wind noise contribution from turbulence. In conclusion, the plots of power spectral densities versus frequency are analyzed to determine what porosity filter would provide the best wind-noise suppression when measured at the center the dome. The study shows that 55% (0.02 to 5 Hz) and 80% (6 to 20 Hz) porosities prove to be the better of the five porosities tested.

An atomic force microscopy beam-like cantilever is combined with an electrical tuning fork to form a shear force probe that is capable of generating an acoustic response from the mesoscopic water layer under ambient conditions while simultaneously monitoring force applied in the normal direction and the electrical response of the tuning fork shear force probe. Two shear force probes were designed and fabricated. A gallium ion beam was used to deposit carbon as a probe material. The carbon probe material was characterized using energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy and scanning transmission electron microscopy. The probes were experimentally validated by demonstrating the ability to generate and observe acoustic response of the mesoscopic water layer.

Controlled acoustic environments are important in voice research. Recording environment affects the quality of voice recordings. While sound booths and anechoic chambers are examples of controlled acoustic environments widely used in research, they are both costly and not portable. The long-term goal of this project is to compare the voice usage and efficiency of trained and untrained singers onsite immediately before and after vocal performance. The specific goal of this project is the further of development a Portable Sound Booth (PSB) and standardization of onsite voice recording procedures under controlled conditions. We hypothesized that the simple and controlled acoustic environment provided by the PSB would enable consistent reliable onsite voice recordings and the immediate differences as a consequence of voice usage were measurable. Research has suggested that it would be possible to conduct onsite voice recordings. Proof of concept research titled "Construction and Characterization of a Portable Sound Booth for Onsite Measurement" was conducted before initiating the full research effort. Preliminary findings revealed that: (1) it was possible to make high-quality voice recordings onsite, (2) the use of a Portable Sound Booth (PSB) required further acoustic characterization of its inherent acoustic properties, and (3) testable differences before and after performance were evident. The specific aims were to (1) develop and refine onsite objective voice measurements in the PSB and (2) evaluate use of the PSB to measure voice quality changes before and after voice usage.

The field of motor speech disorders in Greek is substantially underresearched. Additionally, acoustic studies on lexical stress in dysarthria are generally very rare (Kim et al. 2010). This dissertation examined the acoustic and perceptual effects of Greek dysarthria focusing on lexical stress. Additional possibly deviant speech characteristics were acoustically analyzed. Data from three dysarthric participants and matched controls was analyzed using a case study design. The analysis of lexical stress was based on data drawn from a single word repetition task that included pairs of disyllabic words differentiated by stress location. This data was acoustically analyzed in terms of the use of the acoustic cues for Greek stress. The ability of the dysarthric participants to signal stress in single words was further assessed in a stress identification task carried out by 14 naïve Greek listeners. Overall, the acoustic and perceptual data indicated that, although all three dysarthric speakers presented with some difficulty in the patterning of stressed and unstressed syllables, each had different underlying problems that gave rise to quite distinct patterns of deviant speech characteristics. The atypical use of lexical stress cues in Anna's data obscured the prominence relations of stressed and unstressed syllables to the extent that the position of lexical stress was usually not perceptually transparent. Chris and Maria on the other hand, did not have marked difficulties signaling lexical stress location, although listeners were not 100% successful in the stress identification task. For the most part, Chris' atypical phonation patterns and Maria's very slow rate of speech did not interfere with lexical stress signaling. The acoustic analysis of the lexical stress cues was generally in agreement with the participants' performance in the stress identification task. Interestingly, in all three dysarthric participants, but more so in Anna, targets stressed on the 1^st syllable were more impervious to error judgments of lexical stress location than targets stressed on the 2^nd syllable, although the acoustic metrics did not always suggest a more appropriate use of lexical stress cues in 1^st syllable position. The findings contribute to our limited knowledge of the speech characteristics of dysarthria across different languages.

A survey of relevant literature on the topic of wave propagation and scattering in pipes is given first. This review is followed by a theoretical framework which is pertinent to wave propagation in homogeneous, isotropic, pipes. Emphasis is placed on approximate solutions stemming from a computer based, Semi-Analytical Finite Element (SAFE) formulation. A modal analysis of the dynamic response of homogeneous, isotropic pipes, when subjected to a transient ultrasonic excitation, demonstrates that dominant features, i.e., singularities in an unblemished pipe’s displacement Frequency Response Function (FRF) coincide with its cutoff frequencies. This behaviour is confirmed experimentally. A novel technique is developed to deduce such a pipe’s wall thickness and elastic properties from three cutoff frequencies. The resulting procedure is simulated numerically and verified experimentally. Agreement between the new ultrasonic procedure and traditional destructive tests is within experimental uncertainty. Then a hybrid-SAFE technique is used to simulate waves scattered by various open rectangular notches. The simulations show, for the first time, that singularities distinct from the unblemished pipe’s cutoff frequencies arise in a displacement FRF when an axisymmetric notch is introduced. They also suggest that the new singularities depend on the properties of the parent pipe and the finite element region but effects are local to a notch. It is demonstrated further that the difference between the frequency at which a singularity introduced by a notch occurs and the nearest corresponding unblemished pipe’s cutoff frequency is a function of the notch’s dimensions. By plotting contours of constant frequency differences, it is shown that it is usually possible to characterize the notch’s dimensions by using two modes. However, the frequency difference for a third mode may be also needed occasionally. The more general case of nonaxisymmetric notches is shown to be a straightforward extension of the axisymmetric case.