Harmonica reed fluid dynamics modeling and investigation—Initiation and bending

We are currently investigating the aerodynamics of a harmonica reed’s vibration. Upon investigating through flow visualization, it appears that the initiation and sustain of a free reed could be separated into two different sources. We hypothesize that the initiation of the reed is through turbulence-induced instability as a result of high-speed videos. However, the amplitude of the turbulence-induced vibration is not enough to induce the large amplitude vibrations necessary for sound, and it induces a lot more modes than the fundamental mode of vibration. We think that the pressure gradient across the reed is the driving mechanism for the large amplitude oscillations and pitch bend, similar to Antaki’s [1] work that features pitch bend through magnets, where a localized force gradient seems to be the cause of the frequency shift or bending. In this presentation, we are going to present the data we collected and our simplified ODE model based on the geometry of the instrument. Antaki, J. (n.d.). The turboslide. TurboHarp. https://turboharp.com/collections/turboharp-custom-harmonicas/products/turboslide.