• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
• /
• v.41 no.5
• /
• pp.589-600
• /
• 2022

In order to verify the reliability of Dry Test Bench (DTB) used for testing the output energy from ballistic extracorporeal shock wave therapeutic devices, the measurements with DTB were compared with the acoustic energy measured with a Laser Doppler Vibrometer (LDV) for a commercial ballistic ESWT device. It was shown that the mechanical energy detected with DTB had variability maintained within 5 % at the same output power setting and also had a linear correlation (adj. R² = 0.991) with the acoustic energy measured with the LDV for the entire output power settings. Using the correlation between the two methods and the correlation on the acoustic energy measured in between air and water with the LDV, the DTB measurement can be used to estimate the energy flux density in water with an average error of 7.85 % for the entire output power settings of the ballistic shock wave generator considered in the experiment. DTB provides information limited to the output mechanical energy and therefore it is not suitable for testing the various acoustic output parameters required in IEC61846 and IEC63045. However, DTB that is simple in measurement principles and easy to use is expected for manufacturers and clinical users to monitor the performance of ballistic Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) devices.