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Kettering University's Applied Physics Acoustics Laboratory is the result of donations from Gibson Musical Instruments Inc., HEAD Acoustics, and AP Parts & Manufacturing. In addition to being the primary research laboratory for our physics faculty and students who study acoustics, this laboratory is also used by engineering students taking our upper level acoustics courses. The lab is equipped with state-of-the-art testing apparatus including four two-channel frequency analyzers (octave band, FFT, swept sine, and order tracking); a binaural head measurement system; an intensity probe; two DAT recorders; modal impact hammers; various accelerometers; mechanical shakers; microphones; sound level meters; digital function generators; audio amplifiers and loudspeakers. In addition the lab also contains several Gibson guitars, and two drums for student experiments and research projects. Computational tools include computers with LabVIEW for data acquisition and analysis, FEMLAB for finite element acoustic modeling, STAR Modal for experimental modal analysis, Mathematica and Matlab for mathematical modeling, as well as software for acoustic design of rooms, and loudspeaker design and testing. We also have several older NeXT computer workstations with software for digital recording and mixing, signal analysis and manipulation, and waveform synthesis.
Recent faculty/student projects have included vibrational testing of baseball and softball bats, a mechanical model of the lips of a trombone player, localization of sound and binaural hearing, experimental modal analysis of electric and acoustic guitars, comparison of different types of guitar pickups, removal of a flutter echo from Kettering's McKinnon Theatre, an acoustic analysis of an African Djembe drum, designing a compound subwoofer speaker system, and a demonstration thermoacoustic refrigerator.
Acoustics at Kettering University