Resonance Condition of the Resonance Cavity and Air Gap in the Sacred Bell of the Great King Seongdeok

Korean bell is hung with some air gap between the bell bottom and the ground. In addition, it has a peculiar acoustic element, so called resonance cavity below the bell. A proper design of the air gap and cavity size dramatically amplifies the bell sound by resonance effect. Bell interior cavity, air gap and resonance cavity consist of an acoustic cavity system. When the acoustic cavity frequency coincides with the natural frequency of the bell body, the frequency component is significantly amplified. On the Sacred Bell of the Great King Seongdeok, this study proposes a resonance condition of the cavity system considering air gap effect for the first time. With the exact dimension of the bell, boundary element analysis is performed using SYSNOISE. Finally, this study reveals how the temperature in season influences the resonance condition and proposes a concept of variable type resonance cavity. By using the variable type resonance cavity, the cavity size is controlled on site and exact resonance is available regardless of temperature difference in season.