Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Directivity Patterns Of Acoustic Radiation From Bowed Violins, Lily M. Wang, Courtney B. Burroughs

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Directivity patterns of acoustic radiation have been measured in the far-field of a violin, excited with an open-frame mechanical bowing machine. Analysis of the directivity patterns confirms that, at frequencies below 600 Hz, the violin radiates omnidirectionally, while above 600 Hz, certain trends are apparent as the patterns become increasingly complex. It is noted that when different strings are excited, the far-field radiation patterns observed at nearly the same frequency are similar, even in higher frequency ranges where modal overlap is high. When the difference in frequency between two directivity patterns exceeds some fraction of a semitone, though, the measured …