Fall 2023 Distance Education Course Schedule

Preregistration and registration information is available on the Distance Education Course Registration page.

Class Dates: August 21–December 15

  • All classes video streamed and archived for review
  • All courses available for credit or audit

Tuition Fee:

Tuition rate and IT fee for Fall 2023 is approximately $3,100.  The Exact amount will be determined by the Penn State Board of Trustees in July.

In order to guarantee fall course enrollment:

  • All NEW nondegree student applications and application fees or resume study nondegree student requests must be completed with The Graduate School no later than 5:00 p.m. ET, Friday, August 11.
  • All resume study DEGREE student requests must be completed with The Graduate School no later than 5:00 p.m. ET, Monday, August 14.

Fall 2023 Distance Education Courses

ACS 501: Elements of Acoustics and Vibration

Instructor: Dr. Dan Russell

Credits: 3

Tentative Class Time: Monday and Wednesday, 2:30–3:45 p.m. ET

Tuition: See Tuition Fee announcement above.

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, differential equations, and complex numbers.

Course Material: This course introduces the fundamentals of acoustics and vibration, focusing on structural vibration and sound waves in simple objects such as mass-spring systems, strings, rods, and plates. The fundamental concepts of vibration are presented along with applications to engineering and industrial problems. Topics covered: simple harmonic oscillator; mechanical resonance and damping; forced vibration and normal modes; transverse waves on strings; boundary conditions and standing waves; elasticity; longitudinal, torsional, and transverse vibration of bars; transverse vibrations of membranes; and flexural vibrations of thin plates.

Text: Understanding Acoustics: An Experimentalist’s View of Sound and Vibration, 2nd Ed., Garrett, Steven L., 2020 (Springer) ISBN-10: 3030447863

Free PDF available after course registration.

ACS 502: Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids

Instructor: Dr. Yun Jing

Credits: 3

Tentative Class Time: Monday and Wednesday, 10:35–11:50 a.m. ET

Tuition: See Tuition Fee announcement above.

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics and differential equations.

Course Material: This course lays the fundamental groundwork for the propagation of acoustic waves in fluids. Topics include: basic equations of fluid dynamics, development of the linear wave equation, acoustic lumped elements, speed of sound, linear acoustic wave propagation of plane and spherical waves, radiation of sound from sources and arrays, sound intensity and power, reflection and transmission of sound at boundaries, absorption of sound, propagation of sound in pipes and acoustic filters.

Text: Fundamentals of Physical Acoustics, Blackstock, David T., 2000 (Wiley)  ISBN-10: 0471319791

ACS 503: Signal Analysis for Acoustics and Vibration

Instructor: Dr. Dan Brown

Credits: 3

Tentative Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 9:05–10:20 a.m. ET

Tuition: See Tuition Fee announcement above.

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, differential equations, and complex numbers as well as some familiarity with programming in MatLab or equivalent.

Note: This course replaces ACS 516, Acoustical Data Measurement and Analysis. Students may enroll in this course if they have not taken ACS 516. Students who have previously taken ACS 516 may not enroll in this course.

Course Material: Time- and frequency-domain analyses for sampled, discrete-time acoustic and vibration measurements. Development, application, and consequences of filtering, spectral analysis, and correlation for single- and multi-channel data.

Text: Instructor notes.

Software: MatLab or MatLab Student Version, available at webapps.psu.edu.

ACS 519: Sounds-Structure Interaction

Instructor: Dr. Dan Russell

Credits: 3

Tentative Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 10:35–11:50 a.m. ET

Tuition: See Tuition Fee announcement above.

Prerequisite: ACS 501, Elements of Acoustics and Vibration, and ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids.

Course Material: An advanced course in structural acoustics and vibration, covering the vibration of plate and shell structures surrounded by a fluid (gas or liquid) with consideration of the effects of the surrounding fluid on the vibroacoustic behavior of the structure. Topics will include: flexural waves in beams, plates, and cylindrical shells; forced response, resonance, impedance, and mobility; sound radiation from vibrating structures; wavenumber transforms and the Rayleigh Integral; structural vibration induced by impinging sound waves;  sound transmission loss through panels; coupled behavior of structures and enclosed acoustic volumes; and numerical methods for vibroacoustics (Finite Element Analysis, Boundary Element Analysis, Statistical Energy Analysis).

Text: TBA

ACS 597: Advanced Transducers & Acoustic System Modeling

Instructor: Dr. Stephen Thompson

Tentative Class Time: Monday and Wednesday 9:05–10:20 a.m. ET

Credits: 3

Tuition: See Tuition Fee announcement above.

Prerequisite: ACS 501, Elements of Acoustics and Vibration, ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids and 514 Electroacoustic Transducers.

Course Material: Topics for this course include: condenser, electret, piezoelectric, moving coil, and balanced-armature transducers; and the interaction of closely spaced transducers. Computational modeling for transducer systems will use the methods of dynamic system modeling using Simscape (which is included in the PSU student license for The MathWorks product line). This course will include a significant emphasis on modeling of magnetic circuits and devices and will cover methods for modeling the nonlinearities that are present in most actual transducer devices.

Software:

The SimScape modeling software from The MathWorks. SimScape and all required toolboxes are included with the Penn State student license to the MathWorks software. This license is often referred to as the MATLAB license. However, a full installation of the Penn State student license also includes Simulink, SimScape and many toolboxes. This license must be obtained from the PSU software store. Please note that all of the required software components may not be included in the standard student license purchased from the MathWorks web site and are likely not included in many corporate licenses. Distance Ed students who have been able to use their employer’s corporate license for other courses may find that license does not include enough features for this course. In that case, it would be necessary to obtain the PSU student license for this course. (The MathWorks license is currently available to students at no cost.) 

ACS 597: Nonlinear Acoustics

Instructor: Dr. Vic Sparrow

Tentative Class Time: Tuesday and Thursday 1:35–2:50 p.m. ET

Credits: 3

Tuition: See Tuition Fee announcement above.

Prerequisite: ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids, or instructor approval

Course Material: Review of thermoviscous linear sound; nonlinear equations of acoustics; steepening and harmonic generation; weak shocks and N-waves; Burger’s equation; sonic booms; acoustic saturation; radiation pressure; acoustic levitation; nonlinear reflections and standing waves; biomedical harmonic imaging; streaming; cavitation and sonoluminescence; parametric arrays and the “audio spotlight”; scattering of sound by sound; computational nonlinear acoustics.

Text: Nonlinear Acoustics, M. F. Hamilton and D. T. Blackstock, 1995 or 2008

Text is in limited supply as it is currently out of print.  More procurement information to follow.

Spring 2024 Distance Education Course Schedule

Class Dates: January 8–May 3

Tentative Course Offering

(Suggestions can be sent to acousticsde@psu.edu.)

ACS 514: Electroacoustic Transducers

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: Undergraduate physics, basic linear circuit theory, differential equations, and complex numbers. Must have working knowledge of required software

ACS 515: Acoustics in Fluid Waves

Credits: 3

Prerequisite: ACS 502, Elements of Sound Waves in Fluids or ACS 597B, Introduction to Acoustics and Fluid Media, ACS 598E, Engineering Mathematics I or equivalent, or instructor consent

 
 

About

Founded in 1965, Penn State's Graduate Program in Acoustics has become the leading resource for graduate education in acoustics in the United States. The interdisciplinary program leads to the degrees: Master of Engineering in Acoustics (M.Eng.), Master of Science in Acoustics (M.S.), and Doctor of Philosophy in Acoustics (Ph.D.)

Graduate Program in Acoustics

College of Engineering

The Pennsylvania State University

201 Applied Science Building

University Park, PA 16802