Numerical Analysis of Indoor Sound Quality Evaluation Using Finite Element Method

• Main Authors: Yu-Tuan Chou, Shao-Yi Hsia
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hindawi Limited 2013-01-01
• Series: Mathematical Problems in Engineering
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/420316

Indoors sound field distribution is important to Room Acoustics, but the field suffers numerous problems, for example, multipath propagation and scattering owing to sound absorption by furniture and other aspects of décor. Generally, an ideal interior space must have a sound field with clear quality. This provides both the speaker and the listener with a pleasant conversational environment. This investigation uses the Finite Element Method to assess the acoustic distribution based on the indoor space and chamber volume. In this situation, a fixed sound source at different frequencies is used to simulate the acoustic characteristics of the indoor space. This method considers the furniture and decoration sound absorbing material and thus different sound absorption coefficients and configurations. The preliminary numerical simulation provides a method that can forecast the distribution of sound in an indoor room in complex situations. Consequently, it is possible to arrange interior furnishings and appliances to optimize acoustic distribution and environmental friendliness. Additionally, the analytical results can also be used to calculate the Reverberation Time and speech intelligibility for specified indoor space.