A theoretical model of sound transmission in the thorax

Author

Wodicka, George R. ; Stevens, Kenneth N. ; Shannon, Daniel C.

Author_Institution

MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA

fYear

1989

Firstpage

248

Abstract

A model of sound transmission from within the respiratory tract to the chest wall which accounts for the acoustic coupling through the walls of the large airways was developed. The respiratory tract is represented from 100 to 600 Hz by an equivalent circuit. The propagation of sound within the surrounding lung parenchyma is modeled as a cylindrical wave in a homogeneous mixture of air bubbles in water with associated thermal losses, and the chest wall is considered to be a massive boundary to the wave propagation. The model suggests that the resonance peaks in the transmission spectra are determined by the properties of the respiratory tract and that the attenuation at higher frequencies can be attributed to the absorption of sound in the surrounding lung parenchyma

Keywords

bioacoustics; physiological models; 100 to 600 Hz; acoustic coupling; air bubbles; chest wall; cylindrical wave; equivalent circuit; homogeneous mixture; lung parenchyma; resonance peaks; respiratory tract; sound absorption; sound transmission model; theoretical model; thermal losses; thorax; transmission spectra; wave propagation; Absorption; Acoustic propagation; Attenuation; Coupling circuits; Equivalent circuits; Frequency; Lungs; Propagation losses; Resonance; Thorax;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1989. Images of the Twenty-First Century., Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in

Conference_Location

Seattle, WA

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.1989.95705

Filename

95705