Publications by authors named "Scott Sommerfeldt"

Article Synopsis
  • Noise exposure in NICUs often exceeds safe levels, potentially harming neonatal sleep, growth, and health; researchers assessed a new active noise control (ANC) system to mitigate this issue.
  • In a simulated NICU setting, the ANC device significantly outperformed traditional foam ear covers in reducing noise from alarms and voices, particularly in lower frequency ranges.
  • The ANC device showed consistent noise reduction benefits throughout the incubator, suggesting it could improve neonatal outcomes related to sleep and weight gain compared to existing solutions.
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Computing sound power using complex-valued surface velocities involves using a geometry-dependent acoustic radiation resistance matrix multiplied by a velocity vector to compute sound power for a given frequency range. Using a laser scan grid with constant spacing and a scalar radiator area approximation, a multi-layered Toeplitz symmetry exists in the radiation resistance matrix. An innovative approach was developed to exploit this Toeplitz symmetry.

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The phase and amplitude gradient estimator (PAGE) method [Thomas, Christensen, and Gee, J. Acoust. Soc.

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Vibration-based sound power (VBSP) measurement methods are appealing because of their potential versatility in application compared to sound pressure and intensity-based methods. It has been understood that VBSP methods have been reliant on the acoustic radiation resistance matrix specific to the surface shape. Expressions for these matrices have been developed and presented in the literature for flat plates, simple-curved plates (constant radius of curvature in one direction), and cylindrical- and spherical-shells.

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The natural frequency resonances and sound radiation from one-dimensional acoustic systems are of great interest in the study of musical instruments, human vocal tract effects on speech, automotive exhaust pipes, duct systems for temperature control in buildings, and more. The impedance translation theorem is an approach that may be used to solve for the input impedance and therefore the resonance frequencies of one-dimensional systems. Equivalent circuits offer another approach to solving one-dimensional systems, though with equivalent circuits you can also solve for the response at any location in the system, including the radiated sound pressure.

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Research has shown that using acoustic radiation modes combined with surface velocity measurements provide an accurate method of measuring the radiated sound power from vibrating plates. This paper investigates the extension of this method to acoustically radiating cylindrical structures. The mathematical formulations of the radiation resistance matrix and the accompanying acoustic radiation modes of a baffled cylinder are developed.

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The traditional method for intensity-based sound power estimates often used in engineering applications is limited in bandwidth by microphone phase mismatch at low frequencies and by microphone spacing at high frequencies. To overcome these limitations, the Phase and Amplitude Gradient Estimator (PAGE) method [Gee, Neilsen, Sommerfeldt, Akamine, and Okamoto, J. Acoust.

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Calculation of acoustic intensity using the phase and amplitude gradient estimator (PAGE) method has been shown to increase the effective upper frequency limit beyond the traditional p-p method when the source of interest is broadband in frequency [Torrie, Whiting, Gee, Neilsen, and Sommerfeldt, Proc. Mtgs. Acoust.

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Bias errors for two-dimensional active acoustic intensity using multi-microphone probes have been previously calculated for both the traditional cross-spectral and the Phase and Amplitude Gradient Estimator (PAGE) methods [Whiting, Lawrence, Gee, Neilsen, and Sommerfeldt, J. Acoust. Soc.

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Many methods of two-microphone directional sensing have limited bandwidth. For active intensity, finite-difference error can be removed by using the phase and amplitude gradient estimator method. Using similar principles, a directional pressure sensor based on the phase gradient is developed that is accurate up to the spatial Nyquist frequency, and beyond if phase unwrapping is applied.

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In acoustic intensity estimation, adding a microphone at the probe center removes errors associated with pressure averaging. Analytical bias errors are presented for a one-dimensional, three-microphone probe for active intensity, reactive intensity, and specific acoustic impedance in a monopole field. Traditional estimation is compared with the Phase and Amplitude Gradient Estimator (PAGE) method; the PAGE method shows an increased bandwidth for all three quantities.

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It is often desired to reduce sound radiated from cylindrical shells. Active structural acoustic control (ASAC) provides a means of controlling the structural vibration in a manner to efficiently reduce the radiated sound. Previous work has often required a large number of error sensors to reduce the radiated sound power, and the control performance has been sensitive to the location of error sensors.

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Sound intensity measurements using two microphones have traditionally been processed using a cross-spectral method with inherent error in the finite-sum and finite-difference formulas. The phase and amplitude gradient estimator method (PAGE) has been seen experimentally to extend the bandwidth of broadband active intensity estimates by an order of magnitude. To provide an analytical foundation for the method, bias errors in active intensity and specific acoustic impedance are presented and compared to those of the traditional method.

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The phase and amplitude gradient estimator (PAGE) method for active acoustic intensity uses pairwise microphone transfer functions to obtain the phase gradient, which improves the calculation bandwidth over the traditional weighted quadspectral method. Additionally, for broadband sources, the PAGE theory indicates that the transfer function phase can be unwrapped to further extend the usable frequency range to beyond the spatial Nyquist frequency. Here, two experiments demonstrate intensity bandwidth extension by more than an order of magnitude using phase unwrapping.

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Active structural acoustic control uses a control metric that when minimized reduces the radiated sound. Previous research has identified the weighted sum of spatial gradients (WSSG) control metric and has shown that it is effective in attenuating the radiated sound power from a plate. The WSSG control metric is computed using weighted measurements of the structural response from four closely spaced accelerometers.

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A limitation currently facing active structural acoustic control (ASAC) researchers is that an ideal minimization quantity for use in the control algorithms has not been developed. A novel parameter termed the "weighted sum of spatial gradients" (WSSG) was recently developed for use in ASAC and shown to effectively attenuate acoustic radiation from a vibrating flat simply supported plate in computer simulations. This paper extends this research from computer simulations and provides experimental test results.

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In a diffuse sound field, prior research has established that a secondary source can theoretically achieve perfect cancellation at an error microphone in the far field of the secondary source. However, the sound pressure level is generally only reduced in a small zone around the error sensor, and at a distance half of a wavelength away from the error sensor, the averaged sound pressure level will be increased by more than 10 dB. Recently an acoustic energy quantity, referred to as the generalized acoustic energy density (GED), has been introduced.

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Three multimicrophone probe arrangements used to measure acoustic intensity are the four-microphone regular tetrahedral, the four-microphone orthogonal, and the six-microphone designs. Finite-sum and finite-difference processing methods can be used with such probes to estimate pressure and particle velocity, respectively. A numerical analysis is performed to investigate the bias inherent in each combination of probe design and processing method.

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Active structural acoustic control has been an area of research and development for over two decades with an interest in searching for an "optimal" error quantity. Current error quantities typically require the use of either a large number of transducers distributed across the entire structure, or a distributed shaped sensor, such as polyvinylidene difluoride. The purpose of this paper is to investigate a control objective function for flat, simply-supported plates that is based on transverse and angular velocity components combined into a single composite structural velocity quantity, termed V(comp).

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One design for three-dimensional multimicrophone probes is the four-microphone orthogonal design consisting of one microphone at an origin position with the other three microphones equally spaced along the three coordinate axes. Several distinct processing methods have been suggested for the estimation of active acoustic intensity with the orthogonal probe; however, the relative merits of each method have not been thoroughly studied. This comparative study is an investigation of the errors associated with each method.

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Research in physics education has indicated that the traditional lecture-style class is not the most efficient way to teach introductory physical science courses at the university level. Current best teaching practices focus on creating an active-learning environment and emphasize the students' role in the learning process. Several of the recommended techniques have recently been applied to Brigham Young University's introductory acoustics course, which has been taught for more than 40 years.

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The properties of acoustic kinetic energy density and total energy density of sound fields in lightly damped enclosures have been explored thoroughly in the literature. Their increased spatial uniformity makes them more favorable measurement quantities for various applications than acoustic potential energy density (or squared pressure), which is most often used. In this paper, a generalized acoustic energy density (GED), will be introduced.

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A hybrid modal expansion that combines the free field Green's function and a modal expansion will be presented in this paper based on a review and an extension of the existing modal analysis theories for the sound field in enclosures. The enclosed sound field will be separated into the direct field and reverberant field, which have been treated together in the traditional modal analysis. Studies on a point source in rectangular enclosures show that the hybrid modal expansion converges notably faster than the traditional modal expansions, especially in the region near the source, and introduces much smaller errors with a limited number of modes.

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Near-field vector intensity measurements have been made of a 12.7-cm diameter nozzle solid rocket motor. The measurements utilized a test rig comprised of four probes each with four low-sensitivity 6.

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Recent experiments in active noise control (ANC) have used near-field error sensors whose locations are determined according to the minimization of sound power. Sensors should be placed in regions where the sound pressure reductions are the greatest during sound power minimization of the ANC system. Near-field pressure measurements of noise sources with and without ANC were made.

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