MBS3211_Engineering Science for BS Acoustsics

CHAPTER 5 - ACOUSTICS

5.1. Nature of Sound Waves

a) Properties of Waves

Longitudinal vs. Transverse Waves

• A wave is a traveling disturbance that transports energy from place to place.

• Sound is a longitudinal wave, meaning that the motion of particles is along the
direction of propagation

• Transverse waves—water waves, light—have things moving perpendicular to the

direction of propagation

Longitudinal Wave

Transverse Wave

Sound is one kind of longitudinal wave, in which the particles oscillate to and fro in the same
direction of wave propagation. Sound waves cannot be transmitted through vacuum. The
transmission of sound requires at least a medium, which can be solid, liquid, or gas.

The wavelength, λ is the distance between two successive rarefactions or condensations.

Condensation: a region of higher pressure (compression).

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Rarefaction: a region of lower pressure (stretched out).

Figure 5.1 Propagation of Sound Wave

A cycle is the movement from some point, to another point and back again.

Frequency (f) is the number of cycles per second. Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz).

The period (T) is the time for one cycle and the relationship is:

T = 1/f

f = 1/T
Speed: The wave moves one wavelength λ in one period T so its speed is:

c = λ/ T
f = 1/T

C=fλ
Table 5.1 shows the velocities of sound in same common media.

Table 5.1 Approximate Velocities of Sound in Some Common Media

Material Velocity of Sound (m/s)

Air 344

Water 1,372

Concrete 3,048

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Glass 3,658

Iron 5,182

Lead 1,219

Steel 5,182

Wood (hard) 4,267

Wood (soft) 3,353

b) Hearing Waves in Air.

– Infrasonic: Longitudinal waves with frequencies below 20 Hz.

– Ultrasonic: Longitudinal waves with frequencies greater that 20,000 Hz.

– Since humans can only hear waves in the 20 – 20,000 Hz range, they hear neither
infrasonic nor ultrasonic waves.

– Waves move the eardrum in and out with the same frequency as the wave, which the
brain interprets as sound.

5.2. Characteristics of Sound

a) Sound waves on oscilloscopes

An oscilloscope is a device that can be used to display a sound wave.

The screen displays a graph of how the amplitude of the sound wave varies with time.

A sound can be characterized by the following three quantities:

(i) Pitch.
(ii) Quality/Timbre

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(iii) Loudness.
Pitch is the frequency of a sound as perceived by human ear. A high frequency gives rise
to a high pitch note and a low frequency produces a low pitch note. Figure 5.2 shows the
corresponding wavelength and frequency of low, middle and high pitch and Figure 5.3
shows the approximate wavelength and frequency of everyday sound.

Figure 5.2 Wavelength in air versus frequency under normal conditions(after Harris 1991) (Bruneau, 2010)

Figure 5.3 Frequency and Wavelength of Everyday Sound

A pure tone is the sound of only one frequency, such as that given by a tuning fork or electronic signal
generator. Figure 5.4 compares the difference among a pure tone, a complex tone and a broadband
noise in terms of waveforms and spectra.

The quality or timbre of a musical note is what makes one musical instrument sound different from
another. A music note can be understood as a mix of many frequencies within a small range, ie
frequency band.

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Despite different instruments producing a note of the same loudness and pitch, the shape of the wave
will be different. Figure 5.X compares the difference of the same note of same loudness played by a
violin, a trumpet, a flute and an oboe.

Loudness is an attribute of sound that depends primarily on the amplitude of the wave: the larger the
amplitude, the louder the sound.

quiet
loud

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Figure 5.4 Spectral analysis illustrated. (a) is a pure tone varies as a sine wave with time t at a single frequency f1, as
in (b). (c) is a complex tone varies with time t as a combination of three sinusoidal disturbances of fixed relative
amplitudes and phases; the associated spectrum has three single-frequency components f1, f2 and f3, as in (d). (e) is
a broadband noise varies erratically with time t, with a frequency band spectrum as in (f).(Bruneau, 2010)

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Fig 5.5 Acoustic pressure waveform of A440 (A4) played on a violin, trumpet, flute and oboe(CHARLES FEILDING,
n.d.)

5.3. Strength of Sound

A sound source radiates out sound waves. These sound waves travel through a medium and
arrive at receptors. So there are three distinct elements in a system of sound:

(i) Source, which produces the acoustic energy, (e.g loudspeaker).

(ii) Transimitting/Conveying medium, which transmits the sound, (e.g. air).

(iii) Receptor, which senses the sound, (e.g. human ear as a receiver).

The strength of a sound can be described by two methods :

a) Sound intensity, I, in W/m2, which is the rating of sound sources rate of energy flow per
unit area (see Fig. 4).

𝐼𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑦 = 𝑃𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒 𝑥 𝑃𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦

𝐹𝑜𝑟𝑐𝑒 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
= 𝑥
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒

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𝐸𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑔𝑦
=
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑥 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒
𝑃𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟
=
𝐴𝑟𝑒𝑎

W
I
S

Where W is the total acoustic power passing through the area S.

Figure 5.6 Definition of Sound Intensity

Free Field: When a point source (or any source that radiates equally in all directions) radiates into free
space, the intensity of the sound varies as 1/r2 where r is the distance from the source. This may be
understood as a given amount of sound power being distributed over the surface of an expanding sphere
with area 4π r2 (see Fig. 5.6). Thus the intensity is given by:

W
I
4r 2

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Figure 5.7 Spherical Sound Waves in a Free Field

Pressure amplitude is the magnitude of the maximum change in pressure, measured relative to the
undisturbed or atmospheric pressure. The pressure amplitude, Prms in Pascals or N/m2, which is the
root-mean-square value of the pressure differences.

Sound intensity at a point is a vector, and therefore is direction dependent. When more than one sound
source is present, the intensity at a point in any direction is related to the net P rms in that direction by
the following formula :

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2
𝑃𝑟𝑚𝑠
𝐼=
𝜌𝑐
where ρ = density of conveying medium, kg/m3
c = velocity of sound in the medium, m/s

b) Levels

Common Logarithms

If we know 102= 100

Then log 100 = 2

So, to find the value of log x in calculator means to find the index (exponent) in the base of ten of
number x.

Example:

log 10,000,000 = log 107 = 7 and,

log 0.00000001 = log 10-8 = -8

Useful formulae of Logarithms

log(A x B) = log(A) + log(B)

log(A / B) = log(A) - log(B)

log(An) = n log(A)

Example:

1) log(500) = 2.699

log(5 x 102) = log(5) + log(102) = 0.699 + 2 = 2.699

2) log(47/120) = -0.41

log(47) – log(120) = 1.67 – 2.08 = -0.41

3) log(354) = 6.176

4log(35) = 4x1.544 = 6.176

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Why Logarithms?

Antilogs?

The operation that is the logical reverse of taking a logarithm is called taking the antilogarithm of a
number. The antilog of a number is the result obtained when you raise 10 to that number.

The antilog of 2 is 100 because 102=100.

The antilog of -4 is 0.0001 because 10-4 = 0.0001

Find the antilog function on your calculator.

To take antilogs, your calculator should have one of the following:

A button marked LOG-1

A button marked 10x

A button marked ALOG

A two-button sequence such as INV followed by LOG.

1) Sound Intensity Level, SIL

Another quality described by a decibel level is sound intensity, which is the rate of energy flow across
a unit area. The reference for measuring sound intensity level is Io = 10-12 Watt/m2, and the sound
intensity level (IL or Li,) is defined as :

I
Li  10 log dB
Io

For a free progressive wave in air (e.g., a plane wave travelling down a tube or a spherical wave
travelling outward from a source), sound pressure level and sound intensity level are nearly equal (Lp
= Li) This is not true in general, however, because sound waves from many directions contribute to
sound pressure at a point. When we speak of simply sound level, we nearly always mean sound
pressure level, Lp, since that is what is indicated by our sound-measuring instruments.

2) Sound Pressure Level, SPL

In a sound wave there are extremely small periodic variations in atmospheric pressure to which our
ears respond in a rather complex manner. The minimum pressure fluctuation to which the ear can
respond is less than one-billionth (10-9) of atmospheric pressure. Because of the wide range of pressure
stimuli, it is convenient to measure sound pressures on a logarithmic scale, called the decibel (dB)

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scale. Although a decibel scale is actually a means for comparing two sounds, we can define a decibel
scale of sound level by comparing sounds to a reference sound with a pressure amplitude Po = 2x10-5
(N/m2) assigned a sound pressure level of 0 dB. Thus, we define sound pressure level (SPL or Lp) as:

2
Prms Prms
L p  10 log 2
dB or L p  20 log dB
Po Po

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3) Sound Power Level

In addition to the sound pressure level, there are other levels expressed in decibels, so one must be
careful when reading technical articles about sound or regulations on environmental noise. One such
level is the sound power level (PWL or Lw), which identifies the total sound power emitted by a source
in all directions. Sound power, like electrical power, is measured in watts. In the case of sound, the
amount of power is very small, so the reference Wo selected for comparison is the picowatt (10-12
watt). The sound power level (in decibels) is defined as :

Since Intensity

2
prms W
W  4r 2 I  4r 2 Watt I W/m 2
oc 4 r 2

Peak Power output:

Female Voice – 0.002W, Male Voice – 0.004W,

A Soft whisper – 10-9W, An average shout – 0.001W

Large Orchestra – 10-70W, Large Jet at Takeoff – 100,000W

W
Lw  10 log dB
Wo

A frequently used method of estimating the sound power level (Lw) at a source is to measure the
sound pressure level (Lp) at some distance r, and solve for Lw:

If the source is in free space

4) Adding Decibels

For n numbers of sound power levels acting together, the ith sound power, Wi, is given by :𝑊𝑖 =
𝐿𝑤𝑖⁄ 𝐿𝑤𝑖⁄
𝑊0 10[ 10] , total sound power, ∑𝑛𝑖=1 𝑊𝑖 = 𝑊0 ∑𝑛𝑖=1 10[ 10]

𝑊𝑖
So total sound power level, 𝐿𝑤𝑡 = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔 [∑𝑛𝑖=1 ⁄𝑊 ] = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔[∑𝑛𝑖=1 10(𝐿𝑤𝑖 ⁄10) ]
0

Similarly, for sound pressure levels,

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𝑛
𝐿
( 𝑝𝑖⁄10)
𝐿𝑝𝑡 = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔 [∑ 10 ]
𝑖=1

Example 1

For the addition of 3 sound pressure levels : 90dB, 95dB and 88dB, the total sound pressure
𝐿
𝑛 ( 𝑝𝑖⁄10)
level :𝐿𝑝𝑡 = 10𝑙𝑜𝑔 [∑𝑖=1 10 ]

Lpt = 10 log (1090/10 + 1095/10 + 1088/10)

= 10 log (109 + 10.9.5 + 108.8)

= 96.8dB

4. Behavior of sound

a) Sound Wave Interference and Beats

• When two sound waves are present, the superposition leads to interference. By this,
we mean constructive and destructive addition

• Two similar frequencies produce beats

– spend a little while in phase, and a little while out of phase

– result is “beating” of sound amplitude

in phase: add signal A

signal B

out of phase: cancel

A + B beat
(interference)

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b) Reflection of sound

An echo is a reflected sound wave.

distance, D

c) Sound refraction

The sound produced by person A may be heard more clearly by person B than by person
C. The cooler air over the water refracts the sound waves downwards.

C
A B

d) Sound diffraction cooler air

A typical sound wave has a wavelength of about 1m. This is similar in size to the aperture
of a doorway.

Therefore sound undergoes significant diffraction at a doorway or around the corner of a

building.

This is why we can hear someone in such circumstances even thought we cannot see them.

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e) Standing waves
Standing waves are waves that look stationary, but have an amplitude that changes with
time. Several situations can produce standing waves, including:

1. The “natural” modes of vibration of a string fixed at both ends.

2. Sound waves in a tube open at one or both ends.

3. (1) Standing waves on a string fixed at both ends

Since both ends of the string are fixed, the only possible set of wavelengths is:

n=1 gives the first or fundamental harmonic,

n=2 gives the second harmonic or first overtone,

n=3 the third harmonic or second overtone, etc.

Given the relationship C = f λ, the set of frequencies corresponding to these

wavelengths are
 
v
f n  n 
 2L 

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(2) Standing waves in a tube

A resonance can be used to set up standing sound waves in a tube, this is a
longitudinal standing wave (compared to the transverse standing wave on a string)

• If both ends are open, the possible set of natural frequencies are (as with the
string) :
 v 
f n  n 
with n=1,2,3,…  2L 

• If only one end is open, the following set of resonant frequencies are possible,
though now n can only be an odd integer, n=1,3,5,…

 v 
f n  n 
 4L 

References:

Bruneau, M. (2010). Fundamentals of Acoustics. Fundamentals of Acoustics.

http://doi.org/10.1002/9780470612439

CHARLES FEILDING. (n.d.). Lecture 009 Hearing IV. Retrieved August 15, 2016, from
http://www.feilding.net/sfuad/musi3012-01/html/lectures/009_hearing_IV.htm

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