Applied Acoustics 69 (2008) 6874 www.elsevier.

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Technical note

Prediction of the reverberation time in high absorbent room using a modied-diusion model
A. Billon
b

a,*

, J. Picaut b, A. Sakout

a de La Rochelle, Av. M. Cre peau, 17042 La Rochelle Cedex 01, France LEPTAB Universite ` re et Urbaine, Route de Bouaye, B.P. 4129, 44341 Bouguenais Cedex, France es, Section Acoustique Routie Laboratoire Central des Ponts et Chausse

Received 6 February 2006; received in revised form 26 February 2007; accepted 21 March 2007 Available online 23 May 2007

Abstract A modication of the diusion models boundary condition, based on the Eyring absorption coecient, to account for high walls absorption is proposed. Numerical comparisons are carried out for three geometrical congurations (a proportionate room, a corridor and a at enclosure). Comparisons with the statistical theory and a ray-tracing software show that the modied boundary condition increases the accuracy of the diusion model in term of reverberation time in all the simulated congurations. An experimental comparison in the case of a non-uniformly absorbent room (a reverberation chamber covered with patches of glass wool) is also carried out. The modied-diusion model results match well with the ray-tracing ones. Both models are in agreement with the experimental data for most of third octave bands (discrepancy close to or below 10%). However, some discrepancies up to 40% can also be observed in a few octave bands, probably due to experimental considerations and to the modal behaviour of the room at low frequencies. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Room acoustics; Reverberation time; Numerical modelling; Diusion equation

1. Introduction Reverberation time is one the most used criteria to qualify the sound quality of an enclosure. Sabine [1] and Eyring [2] models based on the diuse sound eld assumption are wildly used as prediction tools. However, these models (as well as all the models based on the diuse sound eld assumption) failed to give accurate predictions of the reverberation time when the absorption is non-homogeneous [3 5], or when the geometry diers from cubic shapes [3]. Recently, Valeau et al. [6] proposed a generalization and a numerical implementation of a so-called diusion model [7]. In this model, the sound energy absorption is local, which allows to predict a non-diuse reverberated sound eld in enclosures, for non-uniform absorptions and for

Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 546458310; fax: +33 546458241. E-mail address: abillon@univ-lr.fr (A. Billon).

disproportionate rooms, as well as in coupled rooms [8]. Moreover, the diusion model is also in agreement with the Sabine model and experimental results for cubic and long enclosures with homogeneous absorption [6]. However the walls absorption is based on the Sabine absorption coecient, restricting the diusion model to the same low absorption assumption that the Sabine model. In this paper, a boundary condition based on the Eyring absorption coecient is then proposed and compared to numerical and experimental results in term of reverberation time. Firstly, the diusion model is introduced and a modication is proposed to improve its predictions for high absorption. Results are then compared in Section 3 to Sabine and Eyring models and a ray-tracing software for three typical geometrical congurations: a cubic room, a corridor and a at enclosure. In Section 4, an application of the diusion model is proposed for a room with non-uniformly distributed absorption and is compared to experiments.

0003-682X/$ - see front matter 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2007.03.001

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2. Diusion model 2.1. Model presentation In the diusion model, the local acoustic energy density ux J(r, t) is approximated as the gradient of the energy density [6,7]: Jr; t Drwr; ; 1 where w is the acoustic energy density, D the coecient diffusion, r the location and t the time. The analytical expression of the diusion coecient is borrowed to the diusion of particles by a scattering medium: kc 4Vc D ; 2 3 3S where c is the sound velocity and k the mean free path. In this analogy, the mean free path is given by the relation 4V/S and account for the room morphology. By varying the diusion coecient value, the model can be extended to non-diuse reections on the boundaries [9]. The walls absorption is described by an exchange coecient: ac h ; 3 4 where a is the Sabine absorption coecient of a considered boundary (a wall or a part of a wall). The exchange coecient being local, spatial variations of the absorption can be easily introduced. The sound decay in the room is obtained by solving the following equations: owr; t DDwr; t P tdr rs in D; ot owr; t hwr; t 0 on S: and D on
1

In these equations, D is the Laplace operator, D the domain delimited by the room surface S and n the exterior normal to the boundaries. The right-hand term of Eq. (4) account for the impulse sound source both in terms of output power and location rs [6]. The system is then solved using a nite element solver. The sound decay and the reverberation time can be thus computed at any location within the enclosure. Valeau et al. [6] showed that the room energy balance of the diusion model leads to the one obtained using Sabine model and that the diusion model can be considered as an extension of diuse sound eld theory. However, the Sabine model is known to overestimate the reverberation time when the enclosure becomes absorbent. In this paper, the Sabine absorption coecient in Eq. (3) is then replaced by the Eyring absorption coecient, leading to a new exchange coecient: h c ln1 a : 4 6

In the following, the diusion model using the Sabine coecient is denoted diusion-Sabine and the one employing the Eyring coecient, diusion-Eyring. 2.2. Room energy balance In the classical diuse eld assumption within an enclosure, the energy balance for a room [10] of volume V containing a source of power output P(t) can be obtained using the Eyring model: V dwt ln1  acS V wt P t: dt 4V 7

4 5

0.9

0.8

0.7

Reverberation time (s)

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0 0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Absorption
Fig. 1. Reverberation time as a function of the sound absorption coecient in a proportionate rooms: Sabines model (solid line), Eyrings model (dashed line), CATT-Acoustic (h), diusion-Sabine (n) and diusion-Eyring (d).

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This equation can be compared to the energy balance of the same room given by the diusion-Eyring model. For both diusion models, this balance is achieved by integrating Eq. (4) over the volume V and by integrating Eq. (5) over the room surface S: Z Z Z owr; t owr; t dV DDwr; tdV D dS o t on V V S Z Z hwr; tdS P t d r r s : 8
S V

By using the Gauss theorem [11], the integral term containing the Laplacian Operator turns out to be: Z Z owr; t dS : 9 D Dwr; tdV D on V S In the case of the diusion-Eyring model, the room energy balance becomes: Z Z owr; t c ln1  a dV wr; tdS P t: 10 o t 4 V S

0.4

0.35

Reverberation time (s)

0.3

0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1

10

15

20

25

x (m)

0.9

0.85

0.8

Reverberation time (s)

0.75

0.7

0.65

0.6

0.55

0.5

10

15

20

25

x (m)
Fig. 2. Reverberation time as a function of the source distance in a long enclosure (a) and a at enclosure (b): CATT-Acoustic (h), diusion-Sabine (n) and diusion-Eyring (d).

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For w(r, t) constant throughout the room (i.e. in the diuse sound eld assumption), Eq. (10) can be reduced to Eq. (7). Then, the proposed model can also be seen as an extension of the statistical theory to non-uniform sound elds using the Eyring absorption coecient. 3. Numerical results In this Section, both diusion models are compared to the statistical theory and a ray tracing software (CATTAcoustic [12]) for three typical room geometries: a proportionate room, a corridor and a at enclosure (e.g. a workshop). 3.1. Proportionate room The proportionate room is dened by a quasi-cubic shape (4 5 3 m3) with homogeneous wall absorption, which is varied between 0.1 and 0.95. For the diusion models and the ray-tracing software, the sound source is located at the centre of the room (x = 2 m, y = 2.5 m and z = 1.5 m) and the reverberation time is evaluated at (x = 2 m, y = 1.5 m and z = 2 m). Sabine and Eyring models are also evaluated. Fig. 1 shows the evolution of the reverberation time as a function of the absorption coecient. The diusion-Eyring is in good agreement with both the Eyring model and the ray-tracing software. Similarly the diusion-Sabine model is in good agreement with the Sabine model. As expected,

for high absorption, the diusion-Sabine model becomes inaccurate. 3.2. Long and at enclosures In this Section, the diusion models are investigated in the case of disproportionate rooms where it is generally admitted that the reverberant sound eld is not diuse [3]. A long (2 2 30 m3) and a at (30 30 3 m3) enclosures with a homogeneous absorption equal to 0.3 for all walls are considered here. The sound sources are located at (x = 2 m, y = 1 m and z = 1 m) and (x = 2 m, y = 15 m and z = 1 m), respectively. For the ray-tracing software, 400 000 sound-rays are considered and the wall reection is assumed to be perfectly diuse (i.e. the scattering coecient is set to 1). Fig. 2 gives the evolution of the reverberation time along the x-axis passing through the sound source. In both congurations, the diusion-Eyring model provides a good agreement with the ray-tracing software. The diusionSabine model overestimates the reverberation time. In the following, only the diusion-Eyring model is used. 4. Comparison with experiments 4.1. Experimental set-up The experimental data herein are extracted from an experimental work reported by Ducourneau and Planeau

Fig. 3. Studied conguration. The shaded zones indicate the glass wool panels. A0 is the sound source and 01, 02 and 03 are the microphones locations (dimensions in m).

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A. Billon et al. / Applied Acoustics 69 (2008) 6874 Table 1 Absorption coecients of the reverberation chamber and the glass wool panels. Reverberation times obtained experimentally (RTexp), with the diusion-Eyring model (RTdif) and the ray-tracing software (RTray) as well as their error relative to experiments are also presented 5000 0.08 0.77 400 0.07 0.95 3150 0.06 0.91 2500 0.05 0.95 2000 0.05 0.93 1600 0.04 0.92 1250 0.04 0.93 1000 0.04 0.92 800 0.04 0.88 630 0.03 0.84 500 0.03 0.80 400 0.03 0.85 315 0.03 0.88 250 0.03 0.67 200 0.03 0.58 160 0.03 0.40 125 0.03 0.35 100 0.02 0.35 1.31 1.69 29.0 1.61 22.9 4.77 6.06 27.0 5.55 16.4 6.08 4.75 21.9 4.21 30.8 3.61 4.30 19.1 4.05 12.2 3.28 3.80 15.9 3.53 7.6 3.06 3.49 14.0 3.30 7.8 2.73 2.88 5.5 2.85 4.4 2.36 3.02 27.9 2.91 23.3 2.28 3.22 41.2 3.01 32.0 2.19 3.06 39.8 2.98 36.1 2.19 2.47 12.8 2.46 12.3 2.19 2.32 5.9 2.42 10.5 2.08 2.27 9.1 2.40 15.4 2.19 2.32 5.9 2.42 10.5 1.99 2.02 1.5 2.11 6.0 1.97 1.94 1.5 2.08 5.6 1.75 1.86 6.3 1.89 8.0 1.53 1.58 3.3 1.67 9.2

[13]. A reverberation chamber (Fig. 3) is tted with three 1.95 0.65 m2 and four 1.26 1 m2 glass wool panels of one wall (7.12 m2 of glass wool). The empty room absorption coecient was obtained by measuring the reverberation times and by using the Eyrings relation (Table 1). The glass wool absorption coecients, measured independently using a free eld method developed by Allard [14], are also presented in Table 1. Third octave band measurements (1005000 Hz) were carried out with a 9 mm blank pistol and three 1/2 in. microphones type B&K 4188 connected to 5935 preamplier, all manufactured by Bru el & Kjaer. Signals were ltered using a Multimetrics Industries low-pass band AF 220 type and were recorded on a DAT. Reverberation times were estimated by measuring the energy decay from 10 to 40 dB, and then averaged over the three microphone locations. The Schroeder frequency of the room, based on the broadband reverberation time, was estimated to 186 Hz. 4.2. Numerical parameters For the ray-tracing simulations, 1 000 000 rays were emitted. The scattering coecient has been varied from 0.1 to 0.7 without noticeable variations of the obtained results; that is not surprising for a small and proportionate enclosure [15]. Results presented here were obtained with a scattering coecient set to 0.4. Similarly, variation of the diusion coecient value (to account for non-diuse reections [9]) does not aect the diusion model results in this case. The atmospheric attenuation is not taken into account. 4.3. Results and discussion The reverberation times and the relative error to the experimental data are presented in Fig. 4. The diusionEyring is in good agreement with the ray-tracing software for all third-octave bands. The discrepancy between the models remains below 10%. However, the comparison with the experimental data shows more deviations. The mean discrepancies with the experiments are respectively 16.4% for the diusion-Eyring model and 15% for the ray-tracing software. Moreover, for more than 50% of the third octave bands, both the ray-tracing software and the diusion show discrepancies higher than 10%. Note that his value is often considered as the minimal models accuracy for practical applications [3]. However the discrepancy is strongly dependant on the frequency under consideration. Both models are based on energetic considerations and so cannot describe the modal behaviour of the enclosure below the Shroeder frequency. The high discrepancy, up to 30%, observed below 200 Hz was then expected and is inherent to the nature of the models. For higher frequency, the models agreement with the experimental data is quite good (close to or below 10% of discrepancy)

f (Hz) Walls Glass wool RTexpt RTdif error (%) RTray error (%)

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Reverberation time (s)

1 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000

Frequency (Hz)

b 100
50

Relative error (%)

10

125

250

500

1000

2000

4000

Frequency (Hz)
Fig. 4. Reverberation time by third octave band (a) and relative error to the experimental data (b): experimental data (solid line), CATT-Acoustic (h) and diusion-Eyring (d).

except for the 400, 500 and 630 Hz third octave bands. For these third octave bands, the discrepancy between the models is about a few percents whereas their discrepancy in respect to the experiments is up to 42%. These frequency bands correspond to a slight decrease of the glass wool panels absorption (Table 1), which should imply an increase of the simulated reverberation times whereas the measured reverberation times carry on to decrease. However, at this frequency, no modal eects are expected. The absorption of the glass wool panels is

sensible to the ber density as well as their assembling. It seems then possible that the measured glass wool panel has not exactly the same acoustical characteristics that the mounted ones. 5. Conclusion A modication of the boundary conditions of the diusion model to account for high wall absorptions was proposed. The Sabine absorption coecient introduced in

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the model boundary conditions has been replaced by the Eyring absorption coecient. This modication was tested for three geometrical congurations: a proportionate room, a corridor and a at enclosure. Numerical comparisons with the Eyring and Sabine models as well as a raytracing software show that the exchange coecient based on the Eyring absorption coecient increase the accuracy of the diusion model in term of reverberation time in all the simulated congurations. A comparison with experimental data for a non-uniformly distributed absorption conguration (a reverberation chamber covered with patches of glass wool) was also carried out. In this case, the modied-diusion model results match well with the ray-tracing ones. The models agreement with the experimental data is good for most of third octave bands (discrepancy close to or below 10%) whereas discrepancies up to 40% are observed for the remaining ones. The discrepancies occurring below the Schroeder frequency are due to modal eects that none of the tested models, based on energetic considerations, are able to account for. The discrepancies noticed at mid-frequency for both models could be linked to the glass wool absorption coecient value. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank J. Ducourneau and V. Planeau to permit the use of their experimental data and V. Valeau and C. Foy for their interesting discussions about the diusion model.

References
[1] Sabine WC. Collected papers on acoustics. New York: Dover Publisher; 1964. [2] Eyring CF. Reverberation in dead rooms. J Acoust Soc Am 1930;1(2):21741. [3] Hodgson M. When is the diuse-eld theory applicable? Appl Acoust 1996;49(3):197207. [4] Bistafa SR, Bradley JS. Predicting reverberation time in a simulated classroom. J Acoust Soc Am 2000;108(4):172131. [5] Ducourneau J, Planeau V. The average absorption coecient for enclosed spaces with non-uniformly distributed absorption. Appl Acoust 2003;64(9):84562. [6] Valeau V, Picaut J, Hodgson M. On the use of a diusion equation for room-acoustic predictions. J Acoust Soc Am 2006;119(3):150413. [7] Picaut J, Simon L, Polack J-D. Sound eld in long rooms with diusely reecting boundaries. Appl Acoust 1999;56(4):21740. [8] Billon A, Valeau V, Picaut J, Sakout A. On the use of a diusion model for acoustically coupled rooms. J Acoust Soc Am 2006;120(4):204354. [9] Valeau V, Hodgson M, Picaut J. A diusion-based analogy for the prediction of sound in tted rooms. Acust/Acta Acust 2007;93(1):94105. [10] Morse P, Feshbach H. Methods of theoretical physics. New York: McGraw-Hill; 1953. [11] Kuttru H. Room acoustics. 3rd ed. London: Applied Science; 1991. [12] Dalenba ck B-IL. Room acoustics prediction based on a unied treatment of diuse and specular reections. J Acoust Soc Am 1996;100(2):899909. quiva[13] Ducourneau J, Planeau V. Etude de labsorption acoustique e ` ne dans un local industriel. Document te roge lente des parois planes he de travail [UMAP 2001/JD/2001]; 2001. [14] Allard JF. Propagation of sound in porous media. London: Elsevier Applied Science; 1993. [15] Hodgson M. Evidence of diuse surface reections in rooms. J Acoust Soc Am 1991;89(2):76571.