AAV Advances in Acoustics and Vibration 1687-627X 1687-6261 Hindawi Publishing Corporation 681787 10.1155/2012/681787 681787 Research Article The Dynamics of a Ringing Church Bell Woodhouse J. jw12@cam.ac.uk Rene J. C. j.rene@maxfordham.com Hall C. S. catherinehall101@googlemail.com Smith L. T. W. luke.smith@cantab.net King F. H. frank.king@cl.cam.ac.uk McClenahan J. W. john@mcclenahans.co.uk Manoach Emil Department of Engineering University of Cambridge Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1PZ UK cam.ac.uk 2012 23 12 2012 2012 29 10 2012 30 11 2012 2012 Copyright © 2012 J. Woodhouse et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Church bell ringing as practised in the UK involves large-amplitude motions of both bell and clapper. A simulation model is developed and validated against experimental measurements. It is shown that the clapper does not hit the bell with a single impact but a long series of bounces, and this has important consequences for the decay profile of the bell vibration. Information relevant to bell-ringers and bell-hangers is collected in a series of design charts derived from the simulation model. These charts can assist in the diagnosis and correction of faults. Arising from the analysis of the bouncing clapper, a more general result is also presented relating to the frequency bandwidth when any structure is excited by a small bouncing impactor, for example an impulse hammer used in vibration testing.