ACOUSTIC COUPLING EFFECTS IN ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL, LONDON

Abstract

In St Paul's Cathedral there are many arches, columns and cornices which enable the internal space to be divided into subspaces. The subspaces may be considered to be acoustically coupled via areas which connect the rooms. Two of the most acoustically important subspaces in the Cathedral are the choir and the space under the dome. The choir, the space within the wooden choir stalls, has more sound absorption than the rest of the building, which is mostly marble and Portland stone. In the model of coupled subspaces an acoustic energy balance equation, applied to a diffuse field, is derived for each subspace. In St Paul's Cathedral the internal space is divided into 70 acoustical subspaces. The initial-value problem which is formulated by the system of 70 acoustic energy balance equations with initial conditions has been reduced to the eigenvalue problem. The decay of sound energy density has been obtained for different locations in the Cathedral and for different positions of the sound source. Experimentally obtained sound decay curves are in good agreement with numerical results. Both the experimental and numerical results demonstrate the fine structure of reverberation.