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Virginia Tech

A Numerical Elastic Model for Deforming Bat Pinnae

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

In bats, the directivity patterns for reception are shaped by the surface geometry of the pinnae. Since many bat species are capable of large ear deformations, these beampatterns can be time-variant. To investigate this time-variance using numerical methods, a digital model that is capable of representing the pinna geometry during the entire deformation cycle has been developed. Due to large deformations and occlusions, some of the surfaces relevant to sound diffraction may not be visible and the geometry of the entire pinna has to be computed from limited data. This has been achieved by combining a complete digital model of the pinna in one position with time-variant sparse sets of three dimensional landmark data. The landmark positions were estimated using stereo vision methods. A finite element model based on elasticity was constructed from CT scans of the pinna post mortem. This elastic model was deformed to provide a good fit to the positions of the landmarks and retain values of smoothness and surface energy comparable to life. This model was able to handle ratios of data to degrees of freedom around 1:5000 and still effect life-like deformations with an acceptable goodness of fit.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Mechanical Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Mechanical Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
2010

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Balakrishnan, Sreenath
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Mueller, Rolf
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Socha, John J.
  • Priya, Shashank

Subjects

dc:subject × 5

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-12222010-233428
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/36406

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Balakrishnan, Sreenath. A Numerical Elastic Model for Deforming Bat Pinnae. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/36406