Calibration of a micromachined particle velocity microphone in a standing wave tube using a LDA photon-correlation technique

In this paper, a new method of calibrating an acoustic particle velocity sensor using laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) is discussed. The results were compared and were in good agreement with the results obtained by conventional methods, where the sensitivity of the microflown is obtained with the use of a reference microphone and a standing wave tube. The LDA signal generated by the acoustic particle motion was analysed using the photon-correlation method, where the signal is considered to consist of a series of discrete photon events. The photon-correlation system is used to measure particle velocity amplitude next to the microflown particle velocity sensor in a standing wave. Measurements are performed for frequencies between 250 Hz and 4 kHz and velocities between 5 mm s-1 and 25 mm s-1 (root-mean-square (rms) values) which are equivalent to sound fields of 100 and 114 dB SPL in free field. From the output voltage of the probe microflown and the LDA-derived particle velocity in a standing wave, the sensitivity of the microflown is obtained. The two different calibration methods are in good agreement showing a discrepancy of 1 dB for the frequency range of 250 Hz–4 kHz.