Looking for a sound career move?

Looking for a sound career move?

Looking for a sound career move?

Sound, whether music or unwanted noise, affects most of our lives every day. Acoustics is the study of sound. Improving our acoustic environment is a complex and rewarding career requiring skills that span many scientific and engineering disciplines. study usHowever, there is much more to sound than meets the ear. Acoustics is responsible for advances ranging from medical diagnosis to understanding climate change.

Often we associate acoustics with music and sound recording or reproduction. Perhaps this is because, for many of us, our most conscious experience of acoustics is via our personal stereos. But audio entertainment is actually only one of many activities that call on the expertise of acousticians. This article explores a few examples to indicate the breadth of opportunity and depth of science that acoustics has to offer as a career.

Audio engineering

Recent breakthroughs in audio engineering include the space-saving "flat-panel speaker". While a conventional speaker has a cone-shaped radiating surface that is stiff and light, the flat-panel speaker is designed to be flexible. study usFlat panel speakers can be built into ceiling tiles and even talking cereal packets! Interestingly, the idea was conceived from an accidental discovery whilst studying helicopter noise.

Virtual Source Imaging (VSI) is another emerging technology in the multi-media industry. In VSI, the sound appears to originate from a virtual position. This is achieved by introducing time delays between waves propagating from two closely spaced loudspeakers. Already developed for surround-sound in PC applications such as computer games, this technology is set to spread into the rapidly growing market of home cinema.

Laser measurement of guitar vibrating at 500 cycles per second

Noise control

Although some acousticians do specialise in the field of audio acoustics, many more employment opportunities are associated with reducing unwanted noise. A controversial example is the wind turbine which, after a decade of research by acousticians and other scientists, no longer deserves the reputation for noise it earned for itself in the 1980's. Aerodynamic noise from the blades is largely at inaudibly low "infrasonic" frequencies and at harmless levels, and mechanical whirring noise from the gearbox and generator has been minimised by vibration isolation measures.

Off-shore wind turbine farm

Transportation is perhaps the largest contributor of noise and is the focus of increasingly stringent legislation. Road vehicle noise, for example, is legislated in the European Union through a drive-by test. Of the many sources of noise on a vehicle, it is sound radiated from the tyre that dominates the drone heard from nearby highways.study us The physical interaction between the tyre and the road is becoming better understood and this has led to developments in quieter road surfaces and designs of tyre.

Rail systems are considered environmentally-friendly, but when a new line is planned it is their noise that often forms the basis of complaints. New techniques to reduce train noise are being developed based on damping out the vibrations of the wheels and rails.

Jet engine noise is a major constraint on the capacity of airports and a blight on local residents, especially in densely populated countries. Aero-engine manufacturers such as Rolls-Royce in the UK invest considerable resources in computational models of flow noise, allowing quieter turbines to be designed. As is often the case in science and engineering, such models should be checked against experiments. Consequently, many leading companies and organisations in the field of acoustics have major experimental facilities. These may include "anechoic chambers" which have highly absorbent walls to reduce sound reflections, "reverberation chambers" and wind tunnels.

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