The coupling of a hearing aid loudspeaker membrane to visco-thermal air layers

Hearing aids and their components are becoming smaller. This presents new problems for the acoustical components, such as the loudspeaker. A circular membrane of a hearing aid loudspeaker is modeled in this paper. Neglecting air influences, the membrane and its suspension behave as a mass spring system. However, under operating conditions, thin layers of air on both sides of the membrane influence its behavior. Air can enter and leave these layers at certain locations on the circular edge of the layer. Since these air layers are thin, visco-thermal effects may have to be taken into account. Therefore, the air layers are not modeled by the wave equation, but by the low reduced frequency model that takes these visco-thermal effects into account. The equations of this model are solved in a polar coordinate system, using a wave-based method. The other acoustical parts of the hearing aid loudspeaker, and the membrane itself are modeled by simple lumped models. The emphasis in this paper is on the coupling of the viscothermal air layer model to the mechanical model of the membrane. Coupling of the air layer to other acoustical parts by using an impedance as boundary condition for the layer model, is also described. The resulting model is verified by experiments. The model and the measurements match reasonably well, considering the level of approximation with lumped parts

COMSOL's New Thermoacoustics Interface and Computationally Efficient Alternative Formulations for FEM

Abstract: Three efficient alternatives to the model in COMSOL's thermoacoustics interface are presented. The higher efficiency of these models are explained from theory and are demonstrated by means of two examples

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association analyses improve resolution of genes and pathways influencing lung function and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk

Lung-function impairment underlies chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and predicts mortality. In the largest multi-ancestry genome-wide association meta-analysis of lung function to date, comprising 580,869 participants, we identified 1,020 independent association signals implicating 559 genes supported by ≥2 criteria from a systematic variant-to-gene mapping framework. These genes were enriched in 29 pathways. Individual variants showed heterogeneity across ancestries, age and smoking groups, and collectively as a genetic risk score showed strong association with COPD across ancestry groups. We undertook phenome-wide association studies for selected associated variants as well as trait and pathway-specific genetic risk scores to infer possible consequences of intervening in pathways underlying lung function. We highlight new putative causal variants, genes, proteins and pathways, including those targeted by existing drugs. These findings bring us closer to understanding the mechanisms underlying lung function and COPD, and should inform functional genomics experiments and potentially future COPD therapies

The Influence of the Horn Effect in Tyre/Road Noise

The horn effect is known as an important amplification mechanism in tyre/road noise. The name is referring to the geometry between tyre and road surface which resembles an exponential horn. The horn effect is a common subject for both experimental and numerical research. Contrary to previous studies which considered point sources, this paper focusses on the horn effect by simulated tyre vibrations. The amplification of acoustic pressure, however, depends largely on the location of the observer. The sound power can be used as a measure for the horn effect which is independent on the point of observation. In this paper, the sound radiation problem is solved using the boundary element method (BEM). First, a case study considering equivalent point sources is used to validate the accuracy of the boundary element model and solver using experimental results. Next, the vibrations of tyres rolling on textured road surfaces are investigated numerically. The computed tyre vibrations are used to study the horn effect using different tyre designs. The amplification by horn effect is determined by the combined tyre/road geometry and the distribution of the noise. The current method may be used to systematically study the influence of the horn effect, for example, during tyre development