Vibration and Acoustics

We are a group of French apprentice students working on a basic encyclopeadia about engineering science of Sound, Vibrations, and Acoustics. The main goal of this syllabus is to help first year students finding what they need even on more specific subjects, like simulation or measurement methods and tools. We tried to make it as complete as possible, using the different experiences we had during our first year of working life.

Introduction

The first thing to say is that vibrations and acoustics are tightly linked. Every time something vibrates, there can be radiated noise which can become a nuisance. In engineering, a big part of the work is to predict, analyse and control this noise. This require tools we find in general mechanics, signal processing and metrology. This syllabus will roughly follow these steps, and will also include a part on environmental acoustics.

  1. Engineering Physics
    1. Wave propagation
      1. Wave equation
      2. Mechanical wave
    2. Mechanics
      1. Solid mechanics
      2. Fluid mechanics
      3. Continuum mechanics
    3. Degrees of freedom (physics and chemistry)
  2. Acoustics
    1. Acoustical engineering
      1. Structural acoustics
    2. Psycholinguistics/Acoustic Phonetics
  3. Vibration
    1. Modal analysis
      1. Frequency response, Eigenanalysis
    2. Bernoulli beam theory
    3. Vibration of plates
    4. Types of Measurement
      1. Operating deflection shape
      2. Laser Doppler vibrometer
      3. Laser scanning vibrometry
      4. Continuous scan laser Doppler vibrometry
  4. Simulations
    1. Introduction to finite elements/Finite element basis functions
    2. Finite element method
    3. Noise map
    4. Related Softwares
      1. CATIA
      2. Nastran
      3. Radioss
      4. Abaqus
    5. Nonlinear finite elements/Natural vibration
    6. Nonlinear finite elements
  5. Signal Processing/Signals
    1. Sound synthesis
      1. Adaptive filter
    2. Sound analysis
      1. Fast Fourier Transform, Discrete Fourier Transform, Time Frequency Analysis
  6. Noise control
    1. Passive noise control
    2. Active noise control
      1. Algorithms
        1. Feed forward (control)
        2. Feedback
  7. Transducer
    1. Actuator
    2. Sensor Technology
      1. Accelerometer
      2. Microphone
      3. Piezoelectricity
      4. Sound Level Meter
  8. Metrology
    1. Calibration
    2. Measurement
    3. Measurement uncertainty
  9. Environmental Acoustics
    1. Methods and tools: A-weighting, Emerging Noise
    2. Environmental noise
    3. World Norms: Noise regulation
    4. French Norms: Building Acoustic Decree