2D Modeling and finite element calculation of the response of the tympanic membrane of the human ear equipped with a Personal Ear Protection (PEP)

L. Barbara Penpen K., S. Assif, A. Faiz, Ch.b Ennawaoui, J. Ducourneau, A. Hajjaji

Abstract: Hearing protections (HP) are personal protective equipment (PPE) which, with their acoustic attenuation characteristics, attenuate the harmful effects of noise [1], [2] on hearing and thus protect any damage to the auditory chain (from the tympanic membrane to the cochlea). The objective of this work is to realize a 2D axisymmetric model of the human ear equipped with hearing protection to study the acoustic properties of the hearing protections and the displacement of the tympanic membrane when the ear canal is equipped with hearing protection. The work consists in a morphological and mechanical characterization of PICBs and a study on the impact of their attenuation performance. We present the influence of geometry, porosity (porosity rate, pore size and shape) and mechanical properties of porous polymers (Young's modulus and Poisson's ratio) made of polyurethane (PU) and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) on the acoustic properties and thus on the attenuation performances. The Johnson-Champoux-Allard (JCA) based on the work of Johnson, Koplik & Dashen has been used to descript the dissipative visco inertial effects inside the porous media in the optics to predict the acoustic attenuation of these porous media of the PVC and PU type.

Series on Biomechanics, Vol.36 No.3 (2022), 3-16
DOI:10.7546/SB.01.03.2022

Keywords: acoustic modeling; acoustic properties; ambient noise; mechanical and morphological characterizations; Porous polymers

Date published: 2022-11-01