To mark the 35th anniversary of Ukraine’s independence, a unique event took place: the reconstruction of a bell from the Tithe Church, which was lost in 1240. A key stage of this international project — acoustic modelling — was carried out by specialists from our faculty and the Department of Acoustic and Multimedia Electronic Systems.
The starting point for the reconstruction was the only surviving fragment of the bell, approximately 60% of its surface, discovered by archaeologists in 1937.
What engineering contribution did the team led by Serhii Naida, Dean of the Faculty of Electronics, with the participation of Mykyta Naida, Assistant Professor of the Department of Acoustic and Multimedia Electronic Systems, make to the project?
🔹 The bell’s geometry was fully digitally reconstructed.
🔹 The physical behaviour of the metal during impact was modelled.
🔹 Acoustic synthesis was performed. In effect, the sound of the bell was calculated mathematically and heard before the bell itself was recreated in metal.
Based on these calculations, an exact physical replica weighing 87.5 kg was cast at the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry in the Netherlands.
Thanks to this work, we have recovered not simply the sound of a bell, but the sound once heard by people in medieval Kyiv.
A remarkable achievement by our colleagues, demonstrating that acoustics is much more than simply working with sound. It is a powerful tool for preserving our history.
