Abstract

The vibrations and the sound field around the body of an old violin made by Stradivari are studied in this paper, in which this violin is scanned using a micro-CT scanner to generate a highly precise geometric image. After the noise in the scanned data is eliminated using a computer-assisted design (CAD) software for post-processing, the geometric data are saved in the simulation software. Assuming the orthotropic properties of woods (spruce and maple), the major vibration modes of the violin, such as A0, center bout rotation, B1-, B1+, and the acoustic pressure level at the surface of the violin body are calculated using the finite element method. Next, using the sound pressure distribution at the surface of the instrument, the sound pressure spreading in a rectangular box simulating a concert hall is calculated with the open-source parallel acoustic analysis software: ADVENTURE Sound. It is concluded that the sound pressure from the violin is successfully simulated.