Le. Murr et al., Materials science and metallurgy of the Caribbean steel drum - Part I - Fabrication, deformation phenomena and acoustic fundamentals, J MATER SCI, 34(5), 1999, pp. 967-979
Steel-drum fabrication, especially the sinking of the drum head (also refer
red to as the "pan") by hand with a hammer, has been examined in detail uti
lizing light metallography (LM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
to characterize residual microstructures corresponding to reductions in thi
ckness of up to 50% at the bottom of the drum head. Dislocation densities i
n the low-carbon (0.01-0.05 wt % C), ferritic steels can exceed 10(10) cm(-
2). Simulations of simple, ideal, free circular notes utilizing 316 stainle
ss-steel plates (0.05 wt % C), cold rolled to reductions up to 40%, reveale
d that deformation (per cent cold reduction) has an important effect on the
acoustic spectrum, especially harmonic spectra. Harmonic-node splitting wa
s observed for thin circular plates (0.076 cm thick); the frequency differe
nce was 60 Hz at 20% cold reduction and 160 Hz at 40% cold reduction. These
dispersion effects, due to deformation-induced microstructures, as well as
irregularities in the note geometries and thicknesses, point to the comple
x and non-linear acoustic features that contribute to the unique sounds of
the Caribbean steel drum. (C) 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers.