Nature of the source of vortex sound flowing around a cylindrical profile

This paper is devoted to refining the nature of a vortex sound source and validly estimating the parameters of the region of source origination in a wake behind a cylindrical profile depending on the incoming flow velocity and profile diameter. Based on experimental measurements of the rms values of pressure pulsations on the surface and in the wake behind the profile and hydrodynamic laws for 2D fluid flows, the position of the origin of the vortex street in the wake and the size of the region where the street is still irregular are estimated. In this region, the street dimensions and pressure pulsation amplitudes change with distance from the profile. It is found that the maximum of the pressure pulsation in the wake approaches the profile surface in the range of Reynolds numbers (4.7 × 10³?1.5 × 10⁴); the amplitude of pressure pulsations on the profile and vortex sound intensity also increase. Based on the relationship between the source’s position and size and the width of the vortex street, as well as taking into account the decay of vortex circulation in the street with increasing distance to the profile, it is shown that the distance from the source to the surface of the profile should not exceed two gages. It is shown that an obstacle in the wake in the region of its irregularity causes a decrease in pressure pulsations on the profile and attenuation of emitted sound. Sound emission ceases completely when the obstacle comes in direct contact with the region of origination of the vortex street. Theoretical estimates satisfactorily agree with the measurement results.     

The propagation of sound in narrow street canyons

This paper addresses an important problem of predicting sound propagation in narrow street canyons with width less than 10 m, which are commonly found in a built-up urban district. Major noise sources are, for example, air conditioners installed on building facades and powered mechanical equipment for repair and construction work. Interference effects due to multiple reflections from building facades and ground surfaces are important contributions in these complex environments. Although the studies of sound transmission in urban areas can be traced back to as early as the 1960s, the resulting mathematical and numerical models are still unable to predict sound fields accurately in city streets. This is understandable because sound propagation in city streets involves many intriguing phenomena such as reflections and scattering at the building facades, diffusion effects due to recessions and protrusions of building surfaces, geometric spreading, and atmospheric absorption. This paper describes the development of a numerical model for the prediction of sound fields in city streets. To simplify the problem, a typical city street is represented by two parallel reflecting walls and a flat impedance ground. The numerical model is based on a simple ray theory that takes account of multiple reflections from the building facades. The sound fields due to the point source and its images are summed coherently such that mutual interference effects between contributing rays can be included in the analysis. Indoor experiments are conducted in an anechoic chamber. Experimental data are compared with theoretical predictions to establish the validity and usefulness of this simple model. Outdoor experimental measurements have also been conducted to further validate the model.     

Sound propagation in the vicinity of an isolated building: an experimental investigation

Recently, the study of acoustics in urban terrain has been concerned with the propagation of sound through street canyons typical of residential areas in large cities, while sparsely built suburban and rural areas have received little attention. An isolated building's effect on propagating sound is a fundamental case of suburban acoustics and urban acoustics in general. Its study is a necessity in order to determine the processes that might be required to model the sound field in the building's vicinity, e.g., diffraction and wind effects. The work herein presents the results of an experimental effort to characterize the interaction between propagating sound and a single story, gabled-roof building typical of some North American suburban and rural areas. Recorded data are found to reasonably compare to a common diffraction model in some instances.     

NUMERICAL MODELLING OF THE SOUND FIELDS IN URBAN STREETS WITH DIFFUSELY REFLECTING BOUNDARIES

A radiosity-based theoretical/computer model has been developed to study the fundamental characteristics of the sound fields in urban streets resulting from diffusely reflecting boundaries, and to investigate the effectiveness of architectural changes and urban design options on noise reduction. Comparison between the theoretical prediction and the measurement in a scale model of an urban street shows very good agreement. Computations using the model in hypothetical rectangular streets demonstrate that though the boundaries are diffusely reflective, the sound attenuation along the length is significant, typically at 20-30 dB/100 m. The sound distribution in a cross-section is generally even unless the cross-section is very close to the source. In terms of the effectiveness of architectural changes and urban design options, it has been shown that over 2-4 dB extra attenuation can be obtained either by increasing boundary absorption evenly or by adding absorbent patches on the façades or the ground. Reducing building height has a similar effect. A gap between buildings can provide about 2-3 dB extra sound attenuation, especially in the vicinity of the gap. The effectiveness of air absorption on increasing sound attenuation along the length could be 3-9 dB at high frequencies. If a treatment is effective with a single source, it is also effective with multiple sources. In addition, it has been demonstrated that if the façades in a street are diffusely reflective, the sound field of the street does not change significantly whether the ground is diffusely or geometrically reflective.     

Sound propagation in street canyons: comparison between diffusely and geometrically reflecting boundaries

This paper systematically compares the sound fields in street canyons with diffusely and geometrically reflecting boundaries. For diffuse boundaries, a radiosity-based theoretical/computer model has been developed. For geometrical boundaries, the image source method has been used. Computations using the models show that there are considerable differences between the sound fields resulting from the two kinds of boundaries. By replacing diffuse boundaries with geometrical boundaries, the sound attenuation along the length becomes significantly less; the RT30 is considerably longer; and the extra attenuation caused by air or vegetation absorption is reduced. There are also some similarities between the sound fields under the two boundary conditions. For example, in both cases the sound attenuation along the length with a given amount of absorption is the highest if the absorbers are arranged on one boundary and the lowest if they are evenly distributed on all boundaries. Overall, the results suggest that, from the viewpoint of urban noise reduction, it is better to design the street boundaries as diffusely reflective rather than acoustically smooth.     

On the approximation of total absorption of the street open ceiling at low frequencies

This work deals with numerical modeling of sound propagation in street canyons with flat building facades. The street is seen as an open waveguide and two 3D wave models are used: a parabolic equation model and a modal expansion model. The comparison between the models shows a very good agreement. Then, the study focuses on the radiation condition at the opening of the street. In usual energetic approaches as ray tracing, the opening is assumed to be perfectly absorbing. This assumption is realistic at high frequencies, however the reflection phenomenon caused by the geometric discontinuity at the opening is still an open question at low frequencies. This possible reflection is investigated through three parametric studies of the acoustic longitudinal energy flux decay along the street. The first study shows that the approximation of total absorption at the street open ceiling is no longer valid when the ratio η between the street width and the wavelength is small. The second study shows that the effect of source height is weak except under restrictive conditions: when η is small and when the source height is not small compared to the wavelength, the approximation of total absorption is acceptable for an elevated source. At least, the results of the last study show that the error made by assuming a perfectly absorbing ceiling is not negligible compared to the error made by considering perfectly reflecting walls.     

On the predictability of the positions of the convergence zones in the ocean

The disagreement between the experimental and calculated positions of the first convergence zone are known from many publications. The most probable cause for such a disagreement, namely, the incorrect specification of the input data for the calculations, is considered. The lack of simultaneity between the hydrological surveys of the region and the acoustic experiments is emphasized. The experimental data obtained by the author in five ocean regions are presented. These data characterize the diurnal variability of the distance from the source to the nearest boundary of the convergence zone. The relations proposed by different researchers for calculating the sound speed from the temperature, salinity, and hydrostatic pressure are analyzed. It is shown that these relations lead to a substantial difference in the estimated depth dependence of the hydrostatic gradient of the sound speed. The position of the first convergence zone is calculated for the propagation conditions determined by vertical temperature and salinity profiles with the subsequent recalculation of these profiles into sound speed profiles by using eight different formulas known from the literature. It is shown that different formulas lead to different values of the distance to the first zone; this difference is substantially greater than that between the calculations and experiment. The necessity of improving the recalculation relations in view of the experimental data on sound propagation in natural oceanic waveguides, including the data on the actual positions of the convergence zones, is emphasized.     

Taking account of loudness constancy for the loudness criterion for concert halls

One of the surprises from analysis of results of an objective and subjective study of British concert halls (1988 Acustica 66, 1–14) was that the subjective judgement of loudness in concert halls is influenced not only by sound level but also by the source–receiver distance. This response implies that the same sound level is judged louder at positions further from the orchestra platform. Whereas level decreases with distance in actual halls, loudness is judged more-or-less independent of position in average halls (except at positions close to the platform and seats overhung by balconies). As an observation it ties in with evidence from experimental psychologists for loudness constancy throughout a space. The sound strength G is the sound level in an auditorium normalised to the sound power level of the source; the traditional criterion of acceptability for level is that G ? 0 dB. The paper proposes that, on the basis of subjective evidence and objective behaviour in auditoria, the criterion for G should not be a unique value of G but rather a function of source–receiver distance.     

Acoustic centering of sources measured by surrounding spherical microphone arrays

The radiation patterns of acoustic sources have great significance in a wide range of applications, such as measuring the directivity of loudspeakers and investigating the radiation of musical instruments for auralization. Recently, surrounding spherical microphone arrays have been studied for sound field analysis, facilitating measurement of the pressure around a sphere and the computation of the spherical harmonics spectrum of the sound source. However, the sound radiation pattern may be affected by the location of the source inside the microphone array, which is an undesirable property when aiming to characterize source radiation in a unique manner. This paper presents a theoretical analysis of the spherical harmonics spectrum of spatially translated sources and defines four measures for the misalignment of the acoustic center of a radiating source. Optimization is used to promote optimal alignment based on the proposed measures and the errors caused by numerical and array-order limitations are investigated. This methodology is examined using both simulated and experimental data in order to investigate the performance and limitations of the different alignment methods.     

Investigation into higher-order mode propagation through orifice plates in circular ducts

Most established techniques for analyzing sound transmission in ducts containing orifices plates are only applicable for plane wave propagation. Once the wavelength of the sound approaches the cross section of the duct, higher order mode propagation in the system must be considered in the analysis. This is a numerically intensive activity if fully coupled calculations of the higher order modes are undertaken. This investigation estimates the acoustic fields in a duct with a simple orifice plate installed using an uncoupled model to estimate the higher order mode contribution. The uncoupled model is then used as the basis for a hybrid decomposition approach to estimate the sound field in the regions before and after the orifice plate installed in a circular duct. This approach is applied to a duct, excited by a point source over a wide frequency range, containing a single orifice plate installed a distance inside the duct. Different orifice plates with one, two and multiple openings are investigated. Of particular interest is the location of the point source relative to the duct axis. If the source is located concentric to the duct axis then, without any orifice plate present, only axially symmetric higher order modes may be excited in the duct. Thus, the investigation considers the point source located in the concentric position and in eccentric positions to vary the contribution from the different types of higher order mode. Estimates of the acoustic fields in the duct obtained using the hybrid decomposition approach are compared with measured data and the applicability of using an uncoupled estimate for the acoustic fields is commented on.     

吸顶式传声器阵列阵元坐标标定方法

提出了一种吸顶式传声器阵列阵元坐标的标定方法。针对在混响声场中,时延估计算法性能严重下降从而导致在标定传声器阵元坐标时产生较大误差的问题,提出了利用脉冲声源作为标定声源,并且截取脉冲源直达声的方法来抑制混响声场的影响,提高传声器阵元坐标标定的精度。建立了阵元坐标标定的误差分析模型,并以白噪声和脉冲声源作为标定声源进行数据仿真和对比分析。仿真结果表明,使用脉冲声源作为标定声源能有效地抑制混响声场的影响,获得传声器阵列阵元的准确坐标。同时,在封闭的房间内建立起孔径为3.5 m、64阵元的螺旋状吸顶传声器阵列进行了实验研究,实验结果验证了本文提出方法的有效性。      

Experimental investigation of the power radiated by a monopole above a reflected plane

The presence of reflecting boundaries causes the acoustic power output of a point source to increase. As existing experimental data were found to be inadequate, experiments have been carried out in this study to determine the effect of a reflecting plane on the power radiated by a point source. A corona-type monopole was used in this study. Both source and receiver positions are varied; the statistical results of power radiated are compared with the theoretical predictions.     

Acoustic Parameters of the Bottom In Lake Baikal

A technique for estimating the effective acoustic parameters of the bottom in shallow water areas under ice cover has been developed. The methodology compares the experimental and simulated dependences of the sound field amplitude on depth at a distance from the source about an order of magnitude greater than the depth of the water area. The effective parameters are the values of the sound speed in the bottom, density, and attenuation coefficient of acoustic waves, which provide maximum agreement with experimental data in the calculations. The methodology was tested in a field experiment on Lake Baikal and can be recommended for developing autonomous acoustic monitoring systems.

     

Experimental and numerical study on the propagation of impulsive sound around buildings

Propagation of impulsive sound around buildings and induced structural loading are investigated experimentally and numerically. Experiments were conducted on a rectangular building at Virginia Tech using sonic booms generated by shaped charges with an explosive weight of 0.78 kg, constructed from detonation cord. These experiments were simulated with a three-dimensional numerical model, in the context of geometrical acoustics (GA), by combining the image source method for the reflected field (specular reflections) with an extension of the Biot–Tolstoy–Medwin (BTM) method for the diffracted field. In this model, it is assumed that the acoustic propagation is linear and that all surfaces are acoustically rigid. This numerical model is validated against a boundary element (BE) solution and experimental data, showing a good overall agreement. The key advantages of this GA modeling approach for this application include the ability to model large three-dimensional domains over a wide frequency range and also to decompose the sound field into direct, reflected, and diffracted components, thus providing a better understanding of the sound-propagation mechanisms. Finally, this validated numerical model is used to investigate sound propagation around a cluster of six rectangular buildings, for a range of elevated source positions simulating sonic booms from aircraft.     

Sound scattering by a Karman street consisting of large-scale vortices

The scattering of acoustic waves by a vortex street formed behind a cylinder in an air flow is studied both theoretically and experimentally for the case of the sound wavelength being much less than the vortex size. The theoretical calculations show that, at flow velocities well below the sound velocity, the vortex street can be considered as a moving phase screen. The spectrum of scattered sound in the far zone is shown to consist of harmonics whose frequencies differ by a multiple of the vortex rate. The computational results agree well with the experimental data obtained for the diffraction of ultrasound of the wavelength λ=3 mm by the Karman street formed behind a circular cylinder with an 8 mm diameter at a flow velocity of 7 m/s.     

Prediction method for sound from passing vehicle transmitted through building façade

This study proposes a prediction method for assessing the sound of a passing vehicle that is transmitted through a glass plate, which employs the vibro-acoustic finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The noise that is transmitted through the glass in a building façade, which is affected by the sound-insulation characteristics of its glass plates, can have a psychological influence such as a sleep disorder on the residents. In this study, a prediction method for the spectral characteristics of the transmitting sound through glass plates is proposed. The sound-insulation characteristics of glass plates are obtained using a vibro-acoustic FDTD method, and are then synthesized with the sound of passing vehicles obtained by in situ measurement. Firstly, the sound transmitted through several kinds of glass plates is simulated using the proposed method. Then, in order to confirm the validity of this method, the simulated results are compared to measured sounds transmitted by passing vehicles into a room near the street.     

Long-range sound propagation in the Mediterranean Sea

The data of several experiments on the long-range propagation of explosion-generated and tonal sound signals are analyzed. The experiments are performed by the Acoustics Institute in the Mediterranean Sea with a fully developed sound channel. A substantial difference is observed for the propagation conditions in the western and eastern parts of the sea. This difference concerns the vertical sound speed profiles, the time structures of the sound field in the underwater sound channel, the duration of the explosion-generated signal, and the positions of the convergence zones. The experiment is compared with calculations. The observed difference in the experimental and calculated positions of the first convergence zone is explained by the imperfection of the relation used to recalculate the salinity, water temperature, and hydrostatic pressure to the sound speed. In spite of substantial difference in the propagation conditions on two 600-km paths, the experimental low-frequency attenuation coefficients on these paths (and on some shorter ones) agree well with each other for the frequency band of several kilohertz. The data are also close to those published for another 600-km path. All the paths mentioned run in different parts of the Mediterranean Sea. The frequency dependence of sound attenuation (absorption) can be well described by the relation that accounts for the absorption caused by the boron present in the sea water.     

线阵波束形成声强缩放方法估算声源的辐射声功率

为了解决波束形成声源识别过程中声源辐射声功率定量计算的问题,给出了阵型简洁、便于组合的线阵声强缩放模型。通过推导线阵的声强缩放系数,建立起线阵波束输出结果与声源辐射声功率之间的换算关系。无论是线阵还是平面阵的声强缩放方法,对于偏离阵列中心位置较远处的声源进行辐射声功率估算时都存在较为明显的误差。通过理论推导和仿真模拟计算,研究了同一单极子点声源在不同位置处的声功率估算偏差随频率、幅度的变化规律,发现该估算偏差只与声源偏离位置有关,而与声源自身的强度信息无关的结论,据此给出了相应的声功率估算修正方法。半消声室实验结果和声压法测量结果对比表明:修正后的线阵声强缩放方法用于中高频声源的辐射声功率计算时,单频声源的估算误差不超过1.0 dB,宽带声源的估算误差不超过1.8 dB。      

Verbal communication and noise in eating establishments

A new simple prediction model has been derived for the average A-weighted noise level due to many people speaking in a room with assumed diffuse sound field. Due to the feed-back influence of noise on the speech level (the Lombard effect), the speech level increases in noisy environments, and the suggested prediction model gives a 6 dB reduction of the noise level by doubling the equivalent absorption area of the room. This is in contrast to the lowering by 3 dB by doubling of the absorption area for a constant power sound source. The prediction model is verified by experimental data found in the literature. In order to achieve acceptable conditions for speech communication within a small group of people, a guide for the recommended minimum absorption area per person in eating establishments is provided.     

基于声全息方法和双目视觉实现运动声源声场可视化

运动声源声场的可视化是一种重要的运动声源定位的技术手段,利用双目视觉测量技术实现运动声源声场空间的自动测量,自动确定运动声源表面的空间位置,针对声源表面,利用传声器阵列,基于声全息方法实现运动声源声场的重建,建立视频图像与声场的空间映射,并建立视频与声场之间的时序,实现实景视频图像与声场重建结果的融合,可以自动生成声源运动过程的视频。基于该方法所开发了一套试验测量系统,对运动声源的测量试验结果表明,该方法可以有效实现运动声源的视频可视化,使人可以直接从视频中看到声源及其变化过程,使声源的定位和识别变得更加简单。