Simulation of building indoor acoustics using an acoustic diffusion equation model

Abstract

During the last 40 years, there has been an increasing interest on performing room acoustic simulations for several purposes; among them, to get a lower sound level, to reduce sound propagation between rooms, to increase speech intelligibility and to adjust reverberance. However, there is no universal method able to deal with every kind of scenario. Recently, a method based on the assumption that the sound energy is propagated in a similar fashion to heat transfer or particles in a gas has been proposed. This method, known as a acoustic diffusion equation model, has been successfully applied to several scenarios that may be considered as challenging, such as long rooms, flat rooms, fitted rooms and coupled rooms. The interest of this method lies on its accuracy and efficient implementation. This article presents the current state-of-the-art of this method with special emphasis to its applicability to indoor building simulation.

Keywords:

• acoustic diffusion equation
• room acoustics simulation
• sound pressure level
• reverberation time
• building acoustics

Acknowledgements

We thank Mario Fon for proofreading the manuscript.

Funding

This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the project TEC2012-37945-C02-01, and by the Universidad Católica San Antonio under the project PMAFI-PI-13/11.