5 th International Vilnius Conference EURO Mini Conference Knowledge-Based Technologies and OR Methodologies for Strategic Decisions of Sustainable Development (KORSD-2009) September 30 October 3, 2009, Vilnius, LITHUANIA ISBN 978-9955-28-482-6 M. Grasserbauer, L. Sakalauskas, E. K. Zavadskas (Eds.): KORSD-2009 Selected papers. Vilnius, 2009, pp. 415 420 Institute of Mathematics and Informatics, 2009 Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, 2009 Aspects Regarding the Resonance Frequencies of Guitar Bodies with Different Strutting Systems Mariana Domnica Stanciu 1, Ioan Curtu 2, Dumitru Lica 3, Ioan Calin Rosca 4, Raimond Grimberg 5 1 4 University Transilvania of Brasov, B-dul Eroilor 29, Brasov, 500036, Romania 5 Institute of Research and Development for Technical Physics, Iasi B-dul Mangeron 47, Iasi E-mail: 1 mariana.stanciu@unitbv.ro; 2 curtui@unitbv.ro; 3 lica@unitbv.ro; 4 icrosca@unitbv.ro Abstract: The classical guitar represents a complex structure with numerous components. One of the most important constructive systems is the bracing system with double role: to assure stiffness of top plate during of playing and to contribute to the acoustic quality of instruments. The paper presents the experimental results regarding the resonance frequencies of different types of guitar body. It was analyzed the structures with different shape, pattern and materials of stiffening systems. The method used consists of applying a harmonic excitation to the structures by means of the mini-shaker. The response of structure to forced vibrations has been captured by means of an accelerometer (measuring on z direction). To process the output data, it was used the PULSE soft of B&K.It noticed that the structures come into the resonance at different excitation frequencies and due to the structural and aerodynamic phenomena which occurs inside the guitar body, it was obtained more or less resonance frequencies in accordance with type bracing system. Keywords: guitar, dynamic analyses, resonance frequency, stiffening system, lingo-cellulose materials 1 Introduction The guitar represents a complex vibrating system. One of the most important parts of guitar is the body. This is made up of ligno-cellulose plates (top plate, back plate, ribs) which vibrate, radiate and amplify the sounds. The plates must have a thin thickness in order to vibrate under the exciting forces of strings. In the same time, these structures must resist to the cyclic stresses during playing. Both requirements are fulfilled by the stiffening braces glued on the top plates (Curtu, 2009). According with the types of guitars made up of S.C. Hora S. A. Reghin Romania in Fig. 1 seven types of top plates different from the point of view of stiffening braces pattern are presented. The paper presents the experimental results regarding the influences of braces number and strutting system on the modal shapes and dynamical behavior of acoustic boxes. In spite of difficulty of analyzing all phenomena which occur in guitar bodies, the present research can be beneficial to predict the tonal qualities of classical guitars. These results are used for optimization of guitar bodies manufactured by S.C. Hora S. A. Reghin Romania (Curtu 2007). 415
M. D. Stanciu, I. Curtu, D. Lica, I. Calin Rosca, R. Grimberg Type 1 Type 2 Type 3 Type 4 2 Research Method Type 5 Type 6 Type 7 Figure 1. Types of strutting system of guitar plates In order to study the influences of stiffening braces the guitar body without its neck was investigated through numerical and experimental method (Curtu 2008, Stanciu 2009). In this paper we will present the experimental method. The procedure was inspired by literature namely Inta 2007 and Wright 1996. The used method consisted of applying a harmonic excitation to the structures by means of the mini-shaker. The experimental stand was built according to the scheme in Fig. 2. 1 frequency generator 2 vibration mass 3 force transducer 4 spring support 5 sample (acoustic box) 6 accelerometers 7 Pulse system B&K 10 personal computer Figure 2. Block diagram representation of test Each guitar body (5) was freely supported on a foam device (4) and excited with a B&K mini-shaker (2) located on a bridge area of the top plate. The frequencies of harmonic force: 82, 110, 146.83, 196, 246.9, 329.2 Hz (specific with the strings of guitar frequencies) and 440 Hz (la musical note), 588 Hz (third frequency of 196 Hz) were generated through frequency generator. The input signal was measured with a force transducer (3) and the forced vibrations of each structure (the output signal) were captured with three B&K 4517-002 type accelerometers (6) (measuring on z direction). The recording and processing of signals in time and in frequency domain it was performed by means of B&K Pulse 12 system (7) connected to the personal computer (8). To determine the modal shapes, the top plate of guitar body was covered with a thin uniform sand layer with 100 150 grit size. 416
ASPECTS REGARDING THE RESONANCE FREQUENCIES OF GUITAR BODIES WITH DIFFERENT 3 Results and discussion 3.1 Chladni patterns The modal shapes of top plates knowing as Chladni pattern are given by the distribution of the significant nodal lines on the surface of structure. The nodal line represents the points or areas which remain in equilibrium position during the vibration. During vibrations, each pattern of strutting system characteristically has nodes and antinodes at various locations on the body of the guitar (Stanciu 2009) There are many methods to determine the Chladni patterns: non contact holographic interferometer techniques and with contact using powder covered of plate. In this research we used the second technique as Table 1. Comparing the obtained results (Table 1), it can be noticed that there are a lot of similarities regarding the modal shapes of low frequencies (110, 146, 196 Hz). With increasing of frequency, the Chladni patterns become more complex and different from a structure to another. Table 1. Comparison between Chladni figures obtained through experimental method (EXP) and numerical ones (FEM, Curtu 2008) for studied acoustic box Types of acoustic box Frequency Case 1 Case 3 Case 4 Case 5 EXP 110 Hz FEM 329 Hz EXP FEM The modal shapes obtained with finite element method are identical with experimental results. 3.2 The analyses in time and frequency domain As it was mentioned in the first part, to record and process data the soft program of Pulse System B&K it was used. The processed signals of each measurement were displayed in numerous charts. Figs. 3, 4 and 5 presents the types of results obtained in real time. 417
M. D. Stanciu, I. Curtu, D. Lica, I. Calin Rosca, R. Grimberg Figure 3. Fourier Spectrum of force transducer signal Figure 4. Energy Density Spectrum of accelerometers signals Figure 5. Phase Fourier Spectrum of accelerometer signal In Fig. 6 is presented the variation of dynamic force with frequencies and types of guitar body. It can be noticed that each analysed structure has a different dynamical behaviour for each excitation frequency due to the influence of stiffening braces. With increasing the frequency, the differences are bigger. Figure 6. Variation of dynamic force with excitation frequency and type of structure In spite of the same values of harmonic excitation which was applied during the experiments, it was recorded different resonance frequency for acoustic bodies of classical guitar with different braces pattern. The guitar body with three transversal braces recorded the most numerous resonance frequencies. With increasing of stiffness of top plate of guitar body, the number of resonance frequency decreasing. The experimental results were compared with numerical ones as it can be seen in Figs. 7, 8, 9 and 10. The natural frequencies and harmonics obtained through theoretical method are very closely with experimental ones, with mention that in last case were recorded more values in wide range of frequencies. 418
ASPECTS REGARDING THE RESONANCE FREQUENCIES OF GUITAR BODIES WITH DIFFERENT Figure 7. Comparison between resonance frequency obtained through experimental method (EXP) and numerical ones (FEM) in case of body with 3 transversal braces Figure 8. Comparison between resonance frequency obtained through experimental method (EXP) and numerical ones (FEM) in case of body with 5 radial braces Figure 9. Comparison between resonance frequency obtained through experimental method (EXP) and numerical ones (FEM) in case of body with 7 radial braces Figure 10. Comparison between resonance frequencies obtained through experimental method (EXP) and numerical ones (FEM) 419
4 Conclusions The experimental investigation of different types of classical guitar bodies has been performed to establish the structural differences reflected on dynamical behaviour of them. Due to the anisotropic materials from guitar structure as is wood, the results varied even the same strutting system of top plate. The approach presented in this paper is focused on structural analyses. It was neglected the influence of bridge and guitar neck. The results show that the increasing of stiffness of top plate from guitar body conduct to a structural modification visible in frequency responses of structure. The obtained data are useful for further studies which aim to optimize the guitar body taking into account the proper ratio between resistance and vibration characteristics of top plate. This work, including theoretical and experimental aspects, invokes advanced operational research methods, involve a knowledge-base engineering development and create a suitable opportunities for a sustainable development of engineering and technical applications. Acknowledgment This work was accomplished under the following grants: PNII71-016 MODIS project manager: Prof. Dr. Grimberg Raimond, INCDFT Iasi, scientific responsible P3 Prof. Dr. Eng. Curtu Ioan, University Transilvania Brasov, CNCSIS Bucuresti TD cod 182, no. 222/2007, project responsible: Ph.D. Eng. Stanciu Mariana Domnica. Also we are grateful to the Technical Staff of S.C. HORA S.A. Reghin Romania for the logistic support. References M. D. Stanciu, I. Curtu, D. Lica, I. Calin Rosca, R. Grimberg Curtu, I.; Stanciu, M. D.; Grimberg, R. 2008. Correlations between the Plate s Vibrations from Guitar s Structure and Physical, Mechanical and Ellastically Characteristics of the Composite Materials, in Proceeding of the 9 th WSEAS Int. Conf. on Acoustic & Music: Theory and Applications (AMTA 08), Bucharest, Romania, 24 26 June 2008, 55 60. ISBN 978-960-6766-74-9 Curtu, I.; Stanciu, M. D.; Savin, A. 2008. The propagation of forced vibrations in coupled plates of guitars, in Proceeding of the 19 th International DAAAM Symposium Intelligent Manufacturing & Automation: Focus on Next Generation of Intelligent Systems and Solutions. Trnava, Slovacia, 22 25 Octombrie 2008, 345 346. ISSN 1726-9679 Curtu, I.; Stanciu, M.; Cretu, N.; Rosca, I. 2009. Modal Analysis of Different Types of Classical Guitar Bodies, in Proceedings of the 10 th WSEAS International Conference on Acoustics & Music: Theory & Applications AMTA09 (ISTP/ISI Proceeding of Thomson Scientific-Institute for Scientific Information), 23 25 March 2009, Prague, Czech Republic, 30 34. ISBN 978-960-474-061-1, ISSN: 1790-5095, Inta, Ra. 2007. The acoustics of the steel string guitar. PhD Thesis, The University of New South Wales, Australia. Stanciu, M. D.; Curtu, I. 2009. Fenomene statice si diamice in analiza structurala a cutiilor de chitara, in Buletinul AGIR Creativitate, Inventica, Robotica 2009, Ed. AGIR, Anul XIV, no. 1, ian-martie 2009, 1 25. ISSN 1224-7928 Wright, H. 1996. The Acoustics and psychoacoustics of the guitar. PhD Thesis. University of Wales, College of Cardiff. 420