Energy decay analysis in coupled volumes using an acoustic wave simulator

Abstract

The acoustics in coupled volumes present various challenges. For example, the sound energy decay curve is double-sloped indicating that a single reverberation time cannot be assigned to coupled volumes. Such a behavior depends on various factors like the aperture sizes between the coupled volumes, absorption coefficients of each volume, etc. Recently, many studies using computer simulation have been performed to better understand the acoustic behavior of coupled volumes. None of these studies perform full 3D acoustic wave simulation on coupled volumes as they are regarded as computationally expensive and limited to very small spaces. We perform acoustic wave simulation using a relatively new wave solver called adaptive rectangular decomposition (ARD). ARD is more accurate than geometric acoustics techniques. It has been demonstrated to provide reliable simulation results through comparison with measurement data in indoor and outdoor scenes. Furthermore, it is practical and can handle large acoustic spaces on a single desktop. In this study, we analyze energy decay curves in coupled volumes using ARD. We perform numerical simulation for various coupled volume configurations such as varying aperture sizes, absorption coefficients, etc., and present their decay curves for analysis.