Validation of adaptive rectangular decomposition for three-dimensional wave-based acoustic simulation in architectural models

Abstract

Computer-based simulation is an increasingly popular way to predict the acoustics of real-world architectural designs. Most commercial acoustic simulation tools are based on geometric techniques, and cannot accurately model low-frequency diffraction and other wave phenomena. Numerical wave simulation techniques can model these effects, but are less commonly used, since they are compute and memory-intensive, and cannot scale to large spaces. Moreover, it is challenging to ensure that numerical methods do not suffer from high dispersion errors. Recent techniques have begun to overcome these limitations. One such method is Adaptive Rectangular Decomposition (ARD), which combines analytical solutions to the wave equation in rectangular subdomains with a finite difference stencil for interface handling between subdomains, resulting in high-performance wave simulation with low dispersion error. ARD, along with high-performance ray tracing, are available as part of Impulsonic's IPL SDK, a software development kit that allows custom acoustic simulation tools to be easily built with state-of-the-art simulation technology. In this paper, we evaluate the performance and accuracy of the IPL SDK and ARD, by analyzing simulation results and comparing them against measurements obtained for real-world architectural designs.