Complement to standard method for measuring normal incidence sound transmission loss with three microphones

Complement to standard E2611-09 of the American Society for Testing and Materials [Standard Test Method for Measurement of Normal Incidence Sound Transmission of Acoustical Materials Based on the Transfer Matrix Method (American Society for Testing and Materials, New York, 2009)] is proposed in order to measure normal incidence sound transmission loss of materials in a modified impedance tube using a three-microphone two-load or one-load method. The modified tube is a standard two-microphone impedance tube, where a third microphone is mounted on a movable hard termination. This method is conceptually identical to the four-microphone two-load or one-load method described in the standard; however, it requires fewer transfer functions and one microphone less. The method is validated on (1) symmetrical homogeneous and (2) non-symmetrical non-homogeneous specimens.     

A hybrid macroscopic-based model for traffic flow in road networks

Recently, the unquestionable growth of interest to increase the operational efficiency and capability of transportation systems led to the development of a large number of traffic modeling theories. One of the major operational issues when developing a transportation system management model lies in the selection of the appropriate methodological approach with respect to several decisions, such as the selection of the type of input and output data as well as the qualitative representation and the computational power of the model. Despite the considerable effort in the area, there is still not an approach which per se models effectively the various dynamically evolving features of traffic in road networks. The present paper addresses this issue by introducing a new hybrid approach which combines the complementary features and capabilities of both continuum mathematical models e.g. 1, 6, 23 and 26 and knowledge-based models e.g. 7, 22 and 28 in order to describe effectively traffic flow in road networks.     

On some computational algorithms forn-fold ideals in BCK-algebras

This paper is devoted to thefoldness theory of implicative ideals in BCK-algebras. We use the fuzzy point concept to give some characterizations of fuzzyn-fold implicative ideals and establish some relationships with variousn-fold ideals. We also construct some algorithms for studying the foldness of implicative ideals in BCK-algebras.     

Balanced vehicular traffic at a bottleneck

The balanced vehicular traffic model is a macroscopic model for vehicular traffic flow. We use this model to study the traffic dynamics at highway bottlenecks either caused by the restriction of the number of lanes or by on-ramps or off-ramps. The coupling conditions for the Riemann problem of the system are applied in order to treat the interface between different road sections consistently. Our numerical simulations show the appearance of synchronized flow at highway bottlenecks.     

Quantifying the through-thickness asymmetry of sound absorbing porous materials

A method to quantify the through-thickness asymmetry of a sound absorbing porous material is proposed and discussed. Its calculation only requires impedance tube measurements of the acoustical surface impedance performed on both sides of the tested material. The method may be used for quality control or to assess the level of asymmetry of the material in terms of its acoustic properties. As a first validation, a two-layered porous system seen as an equivalent asymmetrical single porous layer with a sudden change in its physical properties is studied. From this study, a criterion of asymmetry is suggested and experimentally tested.     

Wideband characterization of the complex wave number and characteristic impedance of sound absorbers

Several methods for measuring the complex wave number and the characteristic impedance of sound absorbers have been proposed in the literature. These methods can be classified into single frequency and wideband methods. In this paper, the main existing methods are revisited and discussed. An alternative method which is not well known or discussed in the literature while exhibiting great potential is also discussed. This method is essentially an improvement of the wideband method described by Iwase et al., rewritten so that the setup is more ISO 10534-2 standard-compliant. Glass wool, melamine foam and acoustical/thermal insulator wool are used to compare the main existing wideband non-iterative methods with this alternative method. It is found that, in the middle and high frequency ranges the alternative method yields results that are comparable in accuracy to the classical two-cavity method and the four-microphone transfer-matrix method. However, in the low frequency range, the alternative method appears to be more accurate than the other methods, especially when measuring the complex wave number.     

Evaluation of the acoustic and non-acoustic properties of sound absorbing materials using a three-microphone impedance tube

This paper presents a straightforward application of an indirect method based on a three-microphone impedance tube setup to determine the non-acoustic properties of a sound absorbing porous material. First, a three-microphone impedance tube technique is used to measure some acoustic properties of the material (i.e., sound absorption coefficient, sound transmission loss, effective density and effective bulk modulus) regarded here as an equivalent fluid. Second, an indirect characterization allows one to extract its non-acoustic properties (i.e., static airflow resistivity, tortuosity, viscous and thermal characteristic lengths) from the measured effective properties and the material open porosity. The procedure is applied to four different sound absorbing materials and results of the characterization are compared with existing direct and inverse methods. Predictions of the acoustic behavior using an equivalent fluid model and the found non-acoustic properties are in good agreement with impedance tube measurements.