Field measurement of airborne sound insulation between rooms with non-diffuse sound fields at low frequencies

Procedures for the field measurement of airborne sound insulation between rooms with diffuse fields are described in International Standard ISO 140-4. However, many dwellings contain rooms with volumes less than 50 m³, where low frequency measurements are less reliable; hence there is a need for a measurement procedure to improve the reliability of field measurements in rooms with non-diffuse fields. Procedures are proposed for sound pressure level and reverberation time measurements for the 50, 63 and 80 Hz third octave bands. The sound pressure level measurement combines corner microphone positions with positions in the central region of each room. This provides a good estimate of the room average sound pressure level with significantly improved repeatability.     

Influence of wall absorption on low-frequency dependence of reverberation time in room of irregular shape

In this paper, a modal analysis was used to describe a reverberation phenomenon in a room of complex shape. A theoretical model was limited to low sound frequencies, when eigenmodes are lightly damped, thus they may be approximated by uncoupled normal acoustic modes of a hard-walled room. A utility of this method was demonstrated in a numerical example where the enclosure in a form of two coupled rooms was considered. A reverberation time was evaluated from a time decay of spatial root mean square pressure, the overall measure of room pressure. The results of calculations, performed for three different distributions of absorbing materials on room walls, showed how various location of the material can effect a dependence of the reverberation time on a frequency of sound source.     

Performance Evaluation and Effectiveness of the Reverberation Room

This research presents a thorough evaluation of the reverberation room at Acoustics Laboratory in National Institute of Standards (NIS) according to the related international standards. The evaluation aims at examining the room performance and exploring its effectiveness in the frequency range from 125 Hz to 10000 Hz according to the international standard requirements. The room, which was designed and built several years ago, is an irregular rectangular shape free from diffusers. Its volume is about 158.84 m³, which meets the requirement of the ISO 354 standard L_max < 1.9V^1/3. Cut-off frequencies of one and one-third octave are 63 Hz and 100 Hz respectively; however Schroder frequency is 400 Hz. Calculations of cut-off frequency and modal density showed adequate modes that give acceptable uniformity starting comfortably from frequency of 125 Hz. The room has a reverberation time that is suitable for its size over the frequency range of interest. The room sound absorption surface area and its sound absorption coefficient satisfy the criteria given in ISO 3741 and ISO 354. There is an accepted diffuse sound field inside the room due to the standard deviation of measured sound level, which is less than 1.5 dB over all the frequency range. The only exception was 125 Hz which may be due to a lack of diffusivity of the sound field at this frequency. The evaluation proves that the NIS reverberation room is in full agreement with the international standards, which in turns qualifies the room to host measurements inside without concerns.     

Modal decomposition method for acoustic impedance testing in square ducts

Accurate duct acoustic propagation models are required to predict and reduce aircraft engine noise. These models ultimately rely on measurements of the acoustic impedance to characterize candidate engine nacelle liners. This research effort increases the frequency range of normal-incidence acoustic impedance testing in square ducts by extending the standard two-microphone method (TMM), which is limited to plane wave propagation, to include higher-order modes. The modal decomposition method (MDM) presented includes four normal modes in the model of the sound field, thus increasing the bandwidth from 6.7 to 13.5 kHz for a 25.4 mm square waveguide. The MDM characterizes the test specimen for normal- and oblique-incident acoustic impedance and mode scattering coefficients. The MDM is first formulated and then applied to the measurement of the reflection coefficient matrix for a ceramic tubular specimen. The experimental results are consistent with results from the TMM for the same specimen to within the 95% confidence intervals for the TMM. The MDM results show a series of resonances for the ceramic tubular material exhibiting a monotonic decrease in the resonant peaks of the acoustic resistance with increasing frequency, resembling a rigidly-terminated viscous tube, and also evidence of mode scattering is visible at the higher frequencies.     

The average absorption coefficient for enclosed spaces with non uniformly distributed absorption

This study concerns the determination of an equivalent acoustic absorption model of the flat heterogeneous walls present in industrial rooms. Numerous measurements of the reverberation time in reverberant room were carried out for several facings with different distributed spatial absorption. Experimental results were compared to classical reverberation time models. The measurements showed that the change in average acoustic absorption depends on the relative distance between the sound source and the absorbent panels, as it is this which creates heterogeneity. Therefore, taking into consideration, in the theoretical models of average acoustic absorption studied, the solid angles representing the equivalent area of the panels as viewed by the source, improved the accuracy of the calculated reverberation time compared to the measurements. This equivalent acoustic absorption model, based on Sabine's absorption coefficient and employing the solid angle ratio, was used to calculate the reverberation time of several industrial rooms. The results obtained are better than those obtained with the standard formula.     

Development of an optimised, standard-compliant procedure to calculate sound transmission loss: design of transmission rooms

A numerical procedure to estimate the transmission loss of sound insulating structures is proposed based upon the technology of acoustic measurements and standards. A virtual laboratory (VL), namely, a numerical representation of a real laboratory consisting of two reverberation rooms meeting certain sound field quality criteria is designed. VL is to be used for the numerical simulation of standardised measurements under predefined, controlled, acoustic conditions. In this paper, the design and optimisation of VL is investigated. The geometry of the transmission rooms is designed following first principles, in order for diffuse field conditions and sufficiently smooth primary mode distribution in the low frequency to be achieved. A finite element-based optimisation procedure, introduced by the author in previous work, is extended to arbitrarily shaped rooms. It is used to predict the appropriate local geometric modifications so as for improved mode distribution and smoother sound pressure fluctuations of the transmission rooms in the low-frequency range to be achieved and low-frequency measurement reproducibility and accuracy to be increased. Steady-state acoustic response analysis is performed in order to quantify the acoustic field quality of the virtual transmission rooms in the frequency range of measurements. A method to calculate the total absorption, A, of the receiving room is introduced by simulation of the reverberation time measurement procedure using Transient acoustic response analysis. The acoustic performance of VL is overall considered and is shown to meet in a sufficient degree, relative laboratory measurement standards in the frequency range of 100÷704 Hz.     

1:50 scale acoustic models for objective testing of auditoria

The particular problems of small-scale models, namely air absorption and transducers, are discussed and it is found that with a dehumidified atmosphere (2–3 per cent relative humidity) and currently available transducers the measurement of reverberation time, as well as impulsive type measurements such as early to late energy ratio and early decay time, is possible at a scale of 1:50. The upper frequency limit for reverberation time is the 2 kHz octave equivalent and the 1 kHz octave for impulse measurements. Comparable measurements made in an auditorium and its 1:50 scale model showed good agreement. Some results of measurements in a model theatre and concert hall are also reported. It is concluded that 1:50 scale acoustic models enable one to measure quantities which cannot be calculated from drawings and offer a valuable aid for the development and confirmation of an auditorium design.     

Prediction of the reverberation time in high absorbent room using a modified-diffusion model

A modification of the diffusion model’s boundary condition, based on the Eyring absorption coefficient, to account for high walls absorption is proposed. Numerical comparisons are carried out for three geometrical configurations (a proportionate room, a corridor and a flat enclosure). Comparisons with the statistical theory and a ray-tracing software show that the modified boundary condition increases the accuracy of the diffusion model in term of reverberation time in all the simulated configurations. An experimental comparison in the case of a non-uniformly absorbent room (a reverberation chamber covered with patches of glass wool) is also carried out. The modified-diffusion model results match well with the ray-tracing ones. Both models are in agreement with the experimental data for most of third octave bands (discrepancy close to or below 10%). However, some discrepancies up to 40% can also be observed in a few octave bands, probably due to experimental considerations and to the modal behaviour of the room at low frequencies.     

Decay rates and wall absorption at low frequencies

This paper is concerned with evaluating the error of conventional estimates of the boundary absorption of rectangular enclosures, with particular reference to reverberation room sound power measurements. The reverberation process is examined theoretically; the relative contributions to the decay rate from different modes in a rectangular room are calculated from an ensemble average over rooms with nearly the same dimensions. It is shown that the traditional method of determining the absorption of the walls of reverberation rooms systematically underestimates the absorption at low frequencies; the error is computed from the ensemble average. Finally, an unbiased estimate of the sound power radiated by a source in a reverberation room is derived. This estimate involves measurement of the initial decay rates of the room and is, unlike the usual reverberation room sound power estimate, neither based on statistical diffuse field considerations nor on the normal mode theory.     

Increase in transmission loss of single panels by addition of mass inclusions to a poro-elastic layer: Experimental investigation

The insertion loss of standard acoustic blankets can be significantly improved at low frequencies by the addition of randomly placed mass inclusions to the poro-elastic layers. The improvement is much greater than that due to the mass effect alone. The mass inclusions act as resonant systems and so increase the structure impedance. This paper reports the results of experimental investigations into this phenomenon. Increases in insertion loss of 15 dB in the 100 Hz third octave band are reported.