Influence of room modes on low-frequency transients: Theoretical modeling and numerical predictions

Abstract

In the low-frequency range, a sound reproduction in enclosures is strongly influenced by excited room modes. While the spectral impact of acoustic modes on a room response is well recognized, there is no sufficient knowledge on how these modes affects transients. In the paper this issue has been examined theoretically and numerically for a room excited by a tone burst by using a modal expansion method supported by a computer implementation. To quantify a temporal accuracy of a sound reproduction, the new metrics referred to as the tone burst reproduction error was introduced. The basis for determining this quantity was a deviation between the tone burst amplitude and the amplitude of a sound pressure computed via the Hilbert transform. A numerical simulation was performed for an irregularly shaped enclosure having a form of two-room coupled system. Calculation results have proved that a high inaccuracy of a tone burst reproduction occurs at receiving points corresponding to sharp dips in a distribution of the steady-state sound pressure level. This is because in these points an amplitude of transient sound is much bigger than a tone burst amplitude. It was discovered that strong narrow peaks in the tone burst reproduction error are located at centers of vortices in the active sound intensity vector field. An influence of a sound damping in a room on a reproduction of a tone burst was also examined and it was found that a substantial increase in a wall sound absorption does not significantly improves a tone burst reproduction because it does not eliminate sharp dips in a distribution of the steady-state sound pressure level.