Evaluation of Acoustic Propagation Paths into the Human Head

Abstract

In summary, the highly interdisciplinary program has addressed successfully the challenging technical goals set forth to develop and validate an acoustic wave propagation model using well understood and documented computational techniques that track an air-borne incident acoustic wave propagated around, into and in the human head. A finite element model was formulated for simulating the acoustic wave propagation concentric spheres. This model was verified against the closed form solution of the plane wave propagation into concentric fluid spheres. A ray tracing method was developed and verified to visuali/c the acoustic wave propagation pathways from a scalar pressure field. Finally, the occlusion effect provides a relatively robust phenomenon to compare the computational findings with the behavioral and functional findings; the occlusion effect contour (or difference score) between the open and occluded ear show a similar trend between the computational findings and the behavioral and functional findings In conclusion, the computational approach, utilizing fluid elements, provides very good agreement m ith human subject findings.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 24, 2009
Accession Number
ADA574400

Entities

People

  • William D. O'brien Jr.

Organizations

  • University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Acoustic Properties
  • Acoustic Waves
  • Acoustics
  • Agreements
  • Computers
  • Digital Images
  • Ear
  • Elastic Waves
  • Engineering
  • Measurement
  • Plane Waves
  • Ray Tracing
  • Three Dimensional
  • Wave Propagation
  • Waves
  • X-Ray Computed Tomography

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Wave Propagation and Nonlinear Chaotic Dynamics.