A novel modelling approach for sound propagation analysis in a multiple scatterer environment

Abstract

In the past decades element‐based numerical modelling techniques have become a commonly used and invaluable tool for the analysis of acoustic radiation and scattering problems. However, the pollution errors associated with the element discretisation inherent to these methods increase with the increasing size of the problem domain. As a result, the applicability of these methods for radiation and scattering problems in which the source and receiver positions are located far from each other is often prohibited. The Wave Based Method (WBM) is an alternative deterministic prediction method for the analysis of steady‐state acoustic problems. It is based on an indirect Trefftz approach in that wave functions, which are exact solutions of the underlying differential equation, are used to describe the dynamic response. The enhanced computational efficiency of the WBM as compared to the element based methods has been shown already for the analysis of both finite and (semi‐)infinite acoustic problems. This paper introduces a novel WBM‐based methodology to model the acoustic source‐receiver transfer path functions in a multiple scatterer environment. A sound propagation validation case illustrates the potential of the proposed approach.