title: Surface area measurement utilizing an acoustic bridge
abstract: A new method is proposed for measuring the surface area of an object. The acoustic conductance of a cavity is proportional to the surface area of the cavity inner wall. The surface area of an object thus can be known from the measurement of the acoustic impedance of a chamber in which the object is placed. In order to measure the acoustic impedance accurately; the proposed method employs the acoustic bridge technique. The experimental device is composed of the following elements so arranged that their electric equivalents form a bridge circuit: a measuring chamber in which an object under test is placed and whose volume can be adjusted; a reference chamber whose inner surface area can be varied; a loudspeaker (the signal source) mounted between the two chambers; and a bypass channel at the midpoint of which a microphone (the null detector) is installed. This bridge balances when the volume and the inner surface area of each chamber become equal. The surface area of the object can then be known from the inner surface area of the reference chamber. Several experiments were performed with this device and the success of the proposed method was verified.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Kumamoto University, Japan.
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Torigoe
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ishii