How the hammering process of cymbals affects their vibration characteristics

Abstract

Cymbals are percussion instruments that vibrate and radiate sounds when hit with a stick or when used in pairs. The sound radiated from a cymbal depends on its vibration characteristics. Cymbals are made through spin forming, hammering and lathing processes. The spin forming creates the domed shape of cymbals, determining the basic vibration characteristics. The hammering and lathing make specific sound quality adjustments by changing the vibration characteristics. In this paper, we focus on how the hammering affects the cymbal's vibration characteristics. The hammering produces many shallow dents over the cymbal's surface, generating residual stresses in it. These residual stresses change the vibration characteristics. We perform finite element analysis of the hammered cymbal to obtain its vibration characteristics. In the analysis, we use thermal stress analysis to reproduce the stress distribution and then with this stress distribution we perform vibration analysis. The results show that the effects of thermal load (i.e., hammering) vary depending on the mode: an increase or decrease in the natural frequency. As a result, the peak frequencies and their peak values in the frequency response function change.

Keywords

• modal analysis
• finite element anaysis
• cymbal
• hammering process
• frequency response function
• natural frequency
• stress distribution