Relationship between Electroencephalogram variation and subjective annoyance under noise exposure

The relationship between Electroencephalogram (EEG) variation and subjective annoyance was investigated with 70 dBA white noise and pure tones at 160 Hz, 500 Hz and 4000 Hz being selected as exposed noise sources. The results indicate that when the duration of noise was less than 6 s, Average Power of Electroencephalogram (APEEG) varied irregularly. When the noise lasted for 5 min, the sum of the relative APEEG of θ wave and the relative APEEG of α wave increased with the subjective annoyance increasing under noise exposures. The maximum power of θ wave appeared in the frontal region, while the maximum power of α wave appeared in the occipital region. Up to the fifth minute after noise exposure, more than two APEEG maximums of θ wave appeared, and the time points of maximum occurrence shifted forwards slowly following the increase of exposed noise frequency. The interval between two time points of maximum occurrence was reduced with the increase of the exposed noise frequency.     

A new test track for automotive squeak and rattle (S&R) detection

The perceived quality of interior sounds is of increasing importance in the automotive industry since it is important for the customer perception of vehicle quality. Squeak and rattle (S&R) is a group of intermittent interior noise that reduce the sense of quality dramatically. To identify and solve S&R problems the car manufacturers do both simulations and tests in laboratory of complete vehicles as well as subsystems. As a complement, to laboratory testing and for verification, complete vehicle tests at proving grounds are done. In order to systematically test for vehicle S&R noise at proving grounds there is a need for a new type of test track that in a controlled and repetitive ways excite vehicles at different frequencies. This paper describes such a new test track, called the Frequency Sweep Test Track (FSTT). The test track is based on sweep excitation and improves the precision when detecting and solving S&R issues. Different design considerations such as sweep waveform, frequency range and sweep rate are discussed. The track design is evaluated using a quarter-car model including a tandem ellipsoid tyre model. In a case study a FSTT was built and the excitation of a car was measured. The track excited the expected frequency range and the track operated well in detecting a rattle in the dashboard of an executive production car and at which frequency the rattle occurred.     

Physical forces exerted by microbubbles on a surface in a traveling wave field

The effect of a wave with a varying traveling component on the bubble activity as well as the physical force generated by microbubbles on a surface has been studied. The acoustic emission from a collection of bubbles is measured in a 928 kHz sound field. Particle removal tests on a surface, which actually measures the applied physical force by the bubbles on that surface, indicate a very strong dependence on the angle of incidence. In other words, when the traveling wave component is maximized, the average physical force applied by microbubbles reaches a maximum. Almost complete particle removal for 78 nm silica particles was obtained for a traveling wave, while particle removal efficiency was reduced to only a few percent when a standing wave was applied. This increase in particle removal for a traveling wave is probably caused by a decrease in bubble trapping at nodes and antinodes in a standing wave field.     

Modelling harmonic generation measurements in solids

Harmonic generation measurements typically make use of the plane wave result when extracting values for the nonlinearity parameter, β, from experimental measurements. This approach, however, ignores the effects of diffraction, attenuation, and receiver integration which are common features in a typical experiment. Our aim is to determine the importance of these effects when making measurements of β over different sample dimensions, or using different input frequencies. We describe a three-dimensional numerical model designed to accurately predict the results of a typical experiment, based on a quasi-linear assumption. An experiment is designed to measure the axial variation of the fundamental and second harmonic amplitude components in an ultrasonic beam, and the results are compared with those predicted by the model. The absolute β values are then extracted from the experimental data using both the simulation and the standard plane wave result. A difference is observed between the values returned by the two methods, which varies with axial range and input frequency.     

In vitro estimation of mean sound speed based on minimum average phase variance in medical ultrasound imaging

Effective receive beamforming in medical ultrasound imaging is important for enhancing spatial and contrast resolution. In current ultrasound receive beamforming, a constant sound speed (e.g., 1540 m/s) is assumed. However, the variations of sound speed in soft tissues could introduce phase distortions, leading to degradation in spatial and contrast resolution. This degradation becomes even more severe in imaging fatty tissues (e.g., breast) and with obese patients. In this paper, a mean sound speed estimation method where phase variance of radio-frequency channel data in the region of interest is evaluated is presented for improving spatial and contrast resolution. The proposed estimation method was validated by the Field II simulation and the tissue mimicking phantom experiments. In the simulation, the sound speed of the medium was set to 1450 m/s and the proposed method was capable of capturing this value correctly. From the phantom experiments, the −18-dB lateral resolution of the point target at 50 mm obtained with the estimated mean sound speed was improved by a factor of 1.3, i.e., from 3.9 mm to 2.9 mm. The proposed estimation method also provides an improvement of 0.4 in the contrast-to-noise ratio, i.e., from 2.4 to 2.8. These results indicate that the proposed mean sound speed estimation method could enhance the spatial and contrast resolution in the medical ultrasound imaging systems.     

Ultrasound pressure distributions generated by high frequency transducers in large reactors

The performance of an ultrasound reactor chamber relies on the sound pressure level achieved throughout the system. The active volume of a high frequency ultrasound chamber can be determined by the sound pressure penetration and distribution provided by the transducers. This work evaluated the sound pressure levels and uniformity achieved in water by selected commercial scale high frequency plate transducers without and with reflector plates. Sound pressure produced by ultrasonic plate transducers vertically operating at frequencies of 400 kHz (120 W) and 2 MHz (128 W) was characterized with hydrophones in a 2 m long chamber and their effective operating distance across the chamber’s vertical cross section was determined. The 2 MHz transducer produced the highest pressure amplitude near the transducer surface, with a sharp decline of approximately 40% of the sound pressure occurring in the range between 55 and 155 mm from the transducer. The placement of a reflector plate 500 mm from the surface of the transducer was shown to improve the sound pressure uniformity of 2 MHz ultrasound. Ultrasound at 400 kHz was found to penetrate the fluid up to 2 m without significant losses. Furthermore, 400 kHz ultrasound generated a more uniform sound pressure distribution regardless of the presence or absence of a reflector plate. The choice of the transducer distance to the opposite reactor wall therefore depends on the transducer plate frequency selected. Based on pressure measurements in water, large scale 400 kHz reactor designs can consider larger transducer distance to opposite wall and larger active cross-section, and therefore can reach higher volumes than when using 2 MHz transducer plates.     

Using experimental design to characterize the effect of structural elements on acoustical response of hand-free phone

This article presents an adaptation of the experimental design method (more precisely called “statistical design and analysis of experiments” and referred to as DOE) to acoustics. Experimental design is an efficient method to find an empirical relation whenever a theoretical one cannot be obtained or would be too difficult to obtain. This technique is not common in acoustics where it has been used in a few application cases to determine what product or process parameters affect the acoustic response. The response variable was single valued whereas, in the proposed method, it is an array of values, a frequency spectrum which constitutes a more practical tool for an advanced acoustic analysis. The results are presented on a spectrum plot where the factor effect is given in the physical quantity (dB) and the Fisher test of significance is presented as two plots of the lower and upper significance limits (also in dB). The method is applied to a hand-free telephone where, for subsequent modeling purposes, the method determines which structural factors affect the telephone acoustic response and what are the associated frequency ranges. This adaptation of the DOE method is validated with the verification of the results in three ways: first, with a complementary experimental design, second, with a more classical experimental method, and, third, with a computer simulation.     

The effects of distributed masses on acoustic radiation behavior of plates

The acoustic radiation behavior of a plate with a distributed mass loading is studied. A set of in vacuo normal modes or fluid-loaded undamped normal modes are used for modal analysis of the acoustic radiation from a plate in air or in water. Modal radiation efficiency, modal volume displacement, modal input energy and sound power level are computed to show the effects of size and location of the mass loading on the acoustic radiation of the plate. It is observed that the acoustic radiation behavior of a mode in both cases will have relatively larger changes if the mass loading is placed on an antinode of the mode shape or the mass loading is more concentrated. The acoustic radiation behavior of a mode and the radiated power of the plate in water have less change than those in air with the same mass loading due to the added mass of the water, especially for the first few modes.     

A model comparison of the absorption coefficient of a Microperforated Insertion Unit in the frequency and time domains

The absorption coefficient of acoustic materials can be measured either in the frequency or the time domain. At normal incidence, a sample of the material is fitted within an impedance tube and the absorption coefficient is calculated in the frequency domain from the measurement of the transfer function between two microphones [ISO 10534-2. Acoustics - determination of sound absorption coefficient and impedance in impedance tubes - Part 2: transfer function method. ISO, Geneva, Switzerland; 1996]. When the acoustic material must be characterized at oblique incidence or in situ (noise barriers, for instance) the absorption coefficient is calculated from measurements of the loudspeaker-microphone impulse response in the time domain, both in free field and in front of the sample [CEN/TS 1793-5. Road traffic noise reduction devices - test method for determining the acoustic performance - Part 5: intrinsic characteristics - in situ values of sound reflection and airborne sound insulation. CEN, Brussels, Belgium; 2003, ISO 13472-1. Acoustic measurement of sound absorption properties of road surfaces in situ - Part I: extended surface method. ISO, Geneva, Switzerland; 2002]. Since the absorption is an intrinsic property of the acoustic material, its measurement in either domain must provide the same result. However, this has not been formally demonstrated yet. The aim of this paper is to carry out a comparison between the absorption coefficient predicted by the impedance model of a Microperforated Insertion Unit and the absorption coefficient predicted from a simulated reflection trace taken into account the finite length of the time window.