Sound power determination in reverberation chambers

Abstract

The determination of sound power in a reverberation chamber is discussed in the light of normal mode theory. It is shown that the sound pressure is proportional to the average contribution of the product of the normal functions at the source and the receiver. Methods of determination of the sound power emitted by a source at a particular point are devised. It is also shown that the sound power determined in reverberation chambers by the standard method is always less than the free-field power, explaining the earlier experiments. A statistical formula is developed to this end.