Vibration and Acoustics Characterization of Singing Bowls

Koed, Jiazhin (2022) Vibration and Acoustics Characterization of Singing Bowls. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Singing bowls are a type of musical instrument played by hitting or rubbing singing bowl’s rim with mallet. It is a musical instruments for healing with sound and vibration therapy. Recently crystal singing bowl was used to serve different purpose. Studies have also been carried out in resonance frequency modes, mainly for the metal singing bowl. The comparison for the vibration and sound characteristics of the crystal singing bowls are still lacking. The singing bowls used in this study are crystal singing bowl and handmade singing bowl, both of these singing bowl is in B note. This study aims to determine the vibration characteristics of two different material singing bowls by finite element analysis (FEA) for theoretical modal analysis (TMA) and experimental modal analysis (EMA). These modal analysis will obtain modal parameters, which include natural frequencies and mode shapes of the singing bowls. The natural frequency of crystal singing bowl obtained from experimental modal analysis (EMA) is similar to the result from FEA, but the natural frequency of handmade singing bowl obtained from EMA is slightly different due to the shape of the handmade singing bowl might not be perfectly axisymmetric. The fundamental frequency of crystal singing bowl is 471.36Hz while the fundamental frequency of handmade singing bowl is 138.25Hz. The mode shape of both crystal singing bowl and handmade singing bowl are similar, only upper ring surface of both singing bowls will vibrate when the singing bowls receive strike. Furthermore, the sound generated by singing bowls will measured to obtain sound spectrum. The sound spectrum for these 2 different materials of singing bowls are study to calibrate the differences. The duration of sound produce by handmade singing bowl is longer than crystal singing bowl, but the tone of crystal singing bowl is higher, and more consistent than handmade singing bowl.