Partial Frequencies and Chladni’s Law in Church Bells - Open Journal of Acoustics

OJA > Vol.4 No.2, June 2014

Open Journal of Acoustics

Volume 4, Issue 2 (June 2014)

ISSN Print: 2162-5786 ISSN Online: 2162-5794

Google-based Impact Factor: 0.4 Citations

Partial Frequencies and Chladni’s Law in Church Bells ()

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DOI: 10.4236/oja.2014.42007 5,745 Downloads 8,825 Views Citations

Author(s)

William A. Hibbert, David B. Sharp, Shahram Taherzadeh, Robert Perrin

Affiliation(s)

Department of Engineering and Innovation, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.
Institute of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand.

ABSTRACT

The rim partials of a church bell (those with an antinode at the soundbow) generate the strike pitch or perceived note of the bell. The spacing in frequency of the higher rim partials has an important effect on the tonal quality of the bell. Investigations into the partial frequencies of 2752 bells, both bronze and steel, of a wide variety of dates, founders and sizes, show a simple and unexpected relationship between the frequencies of the rim partials. This relationship explains why attempts to tune the higher rim partials independently have failed. A modified version of Chladni’s law provides insight into the musical relationship of the partials, and predicts the partials of individual bells well, but fails to give a simple model of the spacing between the partials seen in bells with different profiles.

KEYWORDS

Church Bell, Partial Frequencies, Chladni’s Law, Timbre, Virtual Pitch, Strike Pitch

Share and Cite:

A. Hibbert, W. , B. Sharp, D. , Taherzadeh, S. and Perrin, R. (2014) Partial Frequencies and Chladni’s Law in Church Bells. Open Journal of Acoustics, 4, 70-77. doi: 10.4236/oja.2014.42007.

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