title: Acoustic Analysis of Used Tuning Forks.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In this study, we evaluated used aluminum tuning forks (TFs) for fundamental frequencies (FF), overtones, and decay times.
  
  
  METHODS
  In total, 15 used (1 C1, 11 C2, and 3 C3) and 1 unused (C2) TFs were tuned, and the recorded sound data were analyzed using the Praat sound analysis program.
  
  
  RESULTS
  It was found that FFs of the recorded sounds produced by the used C2-TFs presented a high variability from 0.19% to 74.15% from the assumed FFs, whereas this rate was smaller (1.49%) in the used C3-TFs. Further, decay times of the used C2-TFs varied from 5.41 to 40.97 s.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study, as the first of its kind in the literature, reported that some of the used aluminum TFs lost their physical properties that are important for clinical TF tests. It could be said that this is a phenomenon related to metal fatigue, which is common in aluminum products due to the cyclic load.
authors.affiliation: Department of Audiology, Ankara University School of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey. mustafayuksel16@marun.edu.tr.
authors.forename: Mustafa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yüksel
authors.forename: Yusuf Kemal
authors.initials: YK
authors.lastname: Kemaloğlu
mesh_terms: D000535:Aluminum; D004867:Equipment Design; D006320:Hearing Tests / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D000535:Aluminum