The application of modern scientific methods and measuring techniques can extend the empirical knowledge used for centuries by violinmakers for making and adjusting the sound of violins, violas, and cellos.

Accessories such as strings and tailpieces have been studied recently with respect to style and historical coherence, after having been somehow neglected by researchers in the past. These fittings have played an important part in the history of these instruments, but have largely disappeared as they have been modernised. However, the mechanics of these accessories contribute significantly to sound production in ways that have changed over time with different musical aesthetics and in different technical contexts. There is a need to further elucidate the function and musical contribution of strings and tailpieces.

With this research we are trying to understand the modifications of the cello's sound as a consequence of tailpiece characteristics (shape of the tailpiece and types of attachments). Modal analysis was used to first investigate the vibration modes of the tailpiece when mounted on a non-reactive rig and then when mounted on a real cello where it can interact with the modes of the instrument's corpus. A preliminary study of the effect of the tailpiece cord length will be presented.

Experimental modal analysis of a violin with three different tensions of a bass bar has been performed. The bass bar tension is the only intentionally introduced modification of the instrument. The aim of the study was to find differences and similarities between top plate modal parameters determined by a bass bar perfectly fitting the shape of the top plate, the bass bar with a tension usually applied by luthiers (normal), and the tension higher than the normal value. In the modal analysis four signature modes are taken into account. Bass bar tension does not change the sequence of mode shapes. Changes in modal damping are insignificant. An increase in bass bar tension causes an increase in modal frequencies A0 and B(1+) and does not change the frequencies of modes CBR and B(1-).

In this paper a comparison of numerically determined and measured electromagnetically exited noise of an induction motor is presented. The calculations are accomplished using FEM for an example motor, which is a 290 kW inverter-fed asynchronous machine. The approach starts with the electromagnetic and mechanical consideration. The focus is set on acoustic considerations, which contain the 3D-FE-model and measurement setup in the sound chamber.

This paper is concerned with the 1st stage of HP rotor blade assembly steam turbine TK 120. The methodology was focused on the selection of mechanical properties and the way of the rotor disc modeling and estimating the degree of damage caused by creep. Then the dynamic interference between the frequencies of excitation and the natural frequencies was assessed. Static calculations were performed for the cyclic sectors consisting of the disc, disc blades, spacers and shrouding, including loads as temperature, mass forces from the angular velocity and the pressure on the blades. Then, the creep analysis using a Norton’s model and the modal analysis were performed. Static analysis gave information concerning the distributions of displacements, stress and strain components. In the creep analysis, the creep displacements and stress relaxation versus time were determined and the estimated degree of damage caused by creep was evaluated at each part of the rotor disc. In the modal analysis, the natural frequencies and modes of vibrations corresponding to the nodal diameters were found. The results of modal analysis were shown in the SAFE graph. Numerical calculations have shown that the rotor disc was a well-designed structure and did not reveal any dynamic interference.

In the paper, the results of investigations on the location of generating units most affecting the angular stability of a large power system (PS) are presented. For their location, the eigenvalues of the PS model state matrix associated with electromechanical phenomena (electromechanical eigenvalues) were used. The eigenvalues were calculated on the basis of the analysis of the disturbance waveforms of instantaneous power of the generating units operating in the PS. The used method of calculating eigenvalues consists in approximation of the disturbance waveforms of generating units by the waveforms being the superposition of modal components. The parameters of these components depend on the sought eigenvalues and their participation factors. The objective function was defined as the mean square error between the approximated and approximating waveforms. To minimize it, a hybrid algorithm, being a combination of genetic and gradient algorithms, was used. In the instantaneous power waveforms of generating units most affecting the PS angular stability, the least damped or undamped modal components dominate. They are related to eigenvalues with the largest values of real parts. The impact of individual modal components on the disturbance waveforms of subsequent generating units was determined with the use of participation factors and correlation coefficients of electromechanical eigenvalues.

Acoustic barriers which are positioned along traffic lanes are designed to protect the surroundings from excessive noise. Such structures are to reverberate, diffract and damp the propagating acoustic waves. However, this method of shielding has some disadvantages which include constraint visibility and structure-born noise. The interaction between traffic-caused movement of air mass and acoustic barriers may generate infra noise waves. That is undesirable and should be estimated. The authors undertook the research to diagnose the plausible side effect of structure-born noise of such barriers because it may influence human body (Kasprzak, 2014). As a mechanical structure, the acoustic barrier is characterized by mechanical parameters which, in the field of modal analysis, are made up of natural frequencies, damping factors and mode shapes. In this paper the authors investigated the acoustic pressure distribution in the neighborhood of a real acoustic barrier in the scope of infra noise propagation. The methods of modal analysis were used to identify natural frequencies of the barrier and dominating frequencies of propagating waves in the far field. The correlation between observed vibration and acoustic signals is presented.

This paper presents an analysis of natural vibrations of typical façade scaffolding. Three Finite Element Method models with different levels of accuracy of the real structure of the scaffolding representation were used. Modal analysis was carried out for each of these models. The obtained frequencies and mode shapes were compared with the results from the measurements performed on the full-scale scaffolding. The authors of the paper point out the difficulties arise while modelling such structures, and suggest ways to improve the accuracy of scaffolding computational models.

Two vibrating circular membranes radiate acoustic waves into the region bounded by three infinite baffles arranged perpendicularly to one another. The Neumann boundary value problem has been investigated in the case when both sources are embedded in the same baffle. The analyzed processes are time harmonic. The membranes vibrate asymmetrically. External excitations of different surface distributions and different phases have been applied to the sound sources’ surfaces. The influence of the radiated acoustic waves on the membranes’ vibrations has been included. The acoustic power of the sound sources system has been calculated by using a complete eigenfunctions system.