Acoustic Analysis of Used Tuning Forks.

OBJECTIVE: In this study, we evaluated used aluminum tuning forks (TFs) for fundamental frequencies (FF), overtones, and decay times.

MATERIALS AND 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.

CONCLUSION: 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.