My expertise
- Field and laboratory measurement programmes
- Acoustic signatures
- Signature management
- Machine noise and vibration design and analysis
- Flow noise and vibration
- Contract technical argument
- Structural dynamics
- Propeller noise
- Domestic appliance acoustic design
- Aeroacoustics and hydroacoustics
My biography
Having studied acoustics for a four-year Master’s degree, I am constantly astounded by how broad the field is, and its application to so much of the world around us. One of my favourite facts is that the human ear can apparently detect a sound that moves the ear drum by less than 1/10th the diameter of a hydrogen atom! Not that I’ve measured it…
But I have measured noise and vibration on luxury yachts, submarines, destroyers, armoured fighting vehicles and trains. I’ve measured noise emitted from a rotating radar antenna, and alarming noises emanating from the underside structure of a well-known major bridge: both by unorthodox means!
I have predicted and analysed how a propulsor sounds and how it appears on active sonar, as well as determining how quite a power station must be to avoid annoying the neighbours (and how to design and build it to achieve that). I have helped design quieter domestic appliances and noisier specialist vehicles.
I have helped clients to understand the technical, commercial and programme risks associated with achieving complex acoustic requirements.
The key to all the above has been to truly understand the physics of what is happening. To apply that understanding to a programme of modelling, experimentation, field survey, thought experiment or design. Theory and practice, modelling and measurement: hand-in-glove.
Since graduation I have worked in a shipyard and two other consultancies, one as Sales and Marketing Manager, before joining Frazer-Nash. Our truly multidisciplinary teams, with deep experts in overlapping fields, is our key strength. Fluid dynamicists, structural engineers, math-modellers, software engineers, mechanical designers, electrical engineers… and acoustic engineers working together. I don’t do ordinary!