arrow_back_ios

Main Menu

See All Acoustic End-of-Line Test Systems See All DAQ and instruments See All Electroacoustics See All Software See All Transducers See All Vibration Testing Equipment See All Academy See All Resource Center See All Applications See All Industries See All Insights See All Services See All Support See All Our Business See All Our History See All Our Sustainability Commitment See All Global Presence
arrow_back_ios

Main Menu

See All Actuators See All Combustion Engines See All Durability See All eDrive See All Production Testing Sensors See All Transmission & Gearboxes See All Turbo Charger See All DAQ Systems See All High Precision and Calibration Systems See All Industrial electronics See All Power Analyser See All S&V Hand-held devices See All S&V Signal conditioner See All Test Solutions See All DAQ Software See All Drivers & API See All nCode - Durability and Fatigue Analysis See All ReliaSoft - Reliability Analysis and Management See All Test Data Management See All Utility See All Vibration Control See All Acoustic See All Current / voltage See All Displacement See All Load Cells See All Pressure See All Strain Gauges See All Torque See All Vibration See All LDS Shaker Systems See All Power Amplifiers See All Vibration Controllers See All Accessories for Vibration Testing Equipment See All Training Courses See All Whitepapers See All Acoustics See All Asset & Process Monitoring See All Custom Sensors See All Data Acquisition & Analysis See All Durability & Fatigue See All Electric Power Testing See All NVH See All Reliability See All Smart Sensors See All Vibration See All Weighing See All Automotive & Ground Transportation See All Calibration See All Installation, Maintenance & Repair See All Support Brüel & Kjær See All Release Notes See All Compliance See All Our People
arrow_back_ios

Main Menu

See All CANHEAD See All GenHS See All LAN-XI See All MGCplus See All Optical Interrogators See All QuantumX See All SomatXR See All Accessories See All Accessories See All BK Connect / Pulse See All API See All Microphone Sets See All Microphone Cartridges See All Acoustic Calibrators See All Special Microphones See All Microphone Pre-amplifiers See All Sound Sources See All Accessories for acoustic transducers See All Experimental testing See All Transducer Manufacturing (OEM) See All Accessories See All Non-rotating (calibration) See All Rotating See All CCLD (IEPE) accelerometers See All Charge Accelerometers See All Impulse hammers / impedance heads See All Cables See All Accessories See All Electroacoustics See All Noise Source Identification See All Environmental Noise See All Sound Power and Sound Pressure See All Noise Certification See All Industrial Process Control See All Structural Health Monitoring See All Electrical Devices Testing See All Electrical Systems Testing See All Grid Testing See All High-Voltage Testing See All Vibration Testing with Electrodynamic Shakers See All Structural Dynamics See All Machine Analysis and Diagnostics See All Calibration Services for Transducers See All Calibration Services for Handheld Instruments See All Calibration Services for Instruments & DAQ See All On-Site Calibration See All Resources See All Software License Management

The Big Bell Sound In Beijing


Beijing’s Bell Tower and Drum Tower were used to mark time from the 13th century until 1924. Join Liangwei Shen and Ang Li in their attempt to capture the sound and vibration qualities of the bell to analyze the room acoustics.

The Bell Tower, which could be heard over 20 kilometres away and heralded the morning and opening of the city gates, remained silent until 1990 when it was struck on New Year’s Eve to mark the new year.

Each New Year’s Eve the great bell rings again, resuming its timekeeping duties.

The vibration signal takes more than 140 seconds before decaying, shown by the FFT vs time and total slice, which shows the most prominent tone to be around 26 Hz. Beating frequencies were also found when the bell was vibrating
Professor Yang Yang from Shanxi University’s Music Department sought to apply modern acoustic theory to ancient structures. Brüel & Kjær’s Liangwei Shen and Ang Li then attempted to capture the sound and vibration qualities of the bell and analyze the room acoustics. Capturing the vibration data of the bell was successful. But the bell’s sound power was of such a magnitude that it triggered nearby car alarms, thereby polluting the sound data.

The ‘King of Ancient Bells’ is 7 m high, 3.4 m in diameter and weighs 63 tons


In the most modern car alarms there are vibration sensors that detect if there is an attempt to break a window, for example. The article ‘Wavelength, frequency and speed of sound’ in the April 2017 issue of Waves explains how sound waves propagate through the compression and decompression of air, which of course would transfer to the surface of a car as vibration, and if the magnitude of that wave’s sound power is high enough, off goes the alarm.