Topology Optimization of a Violin Bridge as an Efficient Mechanical Transmitter

摘要

The main role of a violin bridge is to hold the strings and to transmit the vibration of the strings to the violin body.Violin makers have been aware of the fact that the bridge is an important element that influences violin timbre.A bridge can be regarded as a filter element in the transmission and the frequency response of the bridge has a strong influence on the total violin timbre.It can be used to compensate weak or too strong areas in the resonance of the violin body. The resonating frequency and filtering characteristics depend on the geometry and material distribution of the bridge.In this paper, the sensitivity of resonance frequency with respect to geometric design variables is derived.With our alternative approach, we apply a topology optimization technique and have obtained various types of violin bridges depending on some desired resonating characteristics.Comparison of the results with each other has shown that the optimization process can be a viable tool to design a bridge according to prescribed dynamic characteristics for musical performance.