Original article

Textile Research Journal

0(00) 1–13

Sound absorption of textile curtains ! The Author(s) 2016

Reprints and permissions:
sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
– theoretical models and validations DOI: 10.1177/0040517516673337
trj.sagepub.com
by experiments and simulations

Reto Pieren, Beat Schäffer, Stefan Schoenwald

and Kurt Eggenschwiler

Abstract
Textile curtains can be designed to be good sound absorbers. Their acoustical performance, as usually described by
the sound absorption coefficient, not only depends on the textile itself but also on the drapery fullness and the
backing condition, that is, the spacing between the fabric and a rigid backing wall, or the absence of a backing in
the case of a freely hanging curtain. This article reviews existing models to predict the diffuse-field sound absorption
coefficient, which to date can only predict the case of flat curtains. A set of existing models is extended to the case of
curtains with drapery fullness using a semi-empirical approach. The models consider different backing conditions,
including freely hanging curtains. The existing and new models are validated by comparing predicted sound absorption
coefficients with data measured in a reverberation room. Hereby, curtains consisting of different fabrics and with differ-
ent degrees of fullness are considered. Besides situations with rigid backing, also the measurement data of
textiles hung freely in space are included in this study. Comparisons reveal a very good agreement between
measured and predicted sound absorption coefficients. Compared to currently available commercial sound absorption
prediction software that can only handle the situation of flat textiles with rigid backing, the results of the presented
models not only show a better agreement with measured data, but also cover a broader range of situations. The
presented models are thus well applicable in the design and development of new textiles as well as in the room acoustical
planning process.

Keywords
sound absorption, curtains, folding, measurements, modeling

Noise interrupts communication, reduces productivity
and may lead to fatigue or even adverse health effects.
Therefore, it is necessary to optimize the acoustical
quality of rooms taking into account their usage.
Materials such as glass and concrete commonly used
in interior design are acoustically ‘‘hard’’. These mate-
rials reflect sound energy very well, creating a very
reverberant sound field in the room. Improvements of
the acoustical environment, for example, in rooms
where people work, communicate or relax, may often
be achieved by introducing sound absorbing materials.
These, by decreasing reverberation, increase speech
intelligibility and make rooms quieter. Textile curtains
can be designed to be good sound absorbers. For a long
time, however, only heavy curtains of material such as
velvet have provided sufficient absorption to fulfill
acoustical requirements. Recently, new lightweight
and even translucent textile curtains that absorb
sound very well have been developed,1 which has put
them in the focus of interest. Further, the use of textile
curtains hung freely in space as sound absorbers has
recently been investigated.2 In this paper, calculation
models to predict the acoustic performance of such
Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology,
Switzerland
Corresponding author:
Reto Pieren, Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and
Technology, Überlandstr. 129, Dübendorf, 8600, Switzerland.
Email: reto.pieren@empa.ch

Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016

2 Textile Research Journal 0(00)
lightweight curtains in rooms under various conditions
are presented and validated by comparison with mea-
sured data.
To quantify the acoustical performance of materials or
the resulting quality of rooms, various measures are avail-
able.3,4 In statistical room acoustics,3 the most important
parameter is reverberation time. Reverberation time RT
may be predicted by the well-known formula by Sabine,5
with room volume V and total absorption area A of the
room as input parameters, using
V from a reverberation room. Further, the published
RT ¼ 0:16
A
A is calculated by
X X
A¼ Si  S,i þ AObj, j þ Aair
i j
The first term in Equation (2) is the sum of the pro-
duct of the sound absorption coefficients S of all room
surfaces and their respective surface area S. The second
term is the sum of the equivalent sound absorption
areas AObj of all objects inside the room and Aair
denotes the total absorption of air.
S , AObj and Aair are frequency dependent. The
larger the values are, the more sound is absorbed by
the surface material, by the object or by air, respec-
tively. For S and AObj , standardized measurement
methods exist. Tests are conducted in a reverberation
room where the incident sound is assumed to be ideally
diffuse.6 However, prediction of the sound absorption
coefficients from the material properties of an absorber
prove to be much more demanding.7–9
For textile curtains, several prediction models to cal-
culate the sound absorption quantities have been devel-
oped. The classical model only considers the size of
the air cavity between the fabric and a rigid wall and
the specific airflow resistance of the fabric as input
parameters.3 It is based on the assumption that no
sound-induced fabric vibrations occur, which is fulfilled
if the fabric is much heavier than the surrounding air
layer. However, for lightweight fabrics sound-induced
vibrations affect the sound absorption characteristics.
Several authors have proposed methods to take this
effect mathematically into account.10–12
Shoshani and Rosenhouse13 found that the micro-
structure of the fabric substantially influences the sound
absorption coefficient. Since then, several models based
on geometrical fabric parameters, such as porosity, thick-
ness or pore size, have been proposed.10,14–18 The effect
of flow distortions due to the constriction of the oscilla-
tory flow through the material was described mathema-
tically by Atalla and Sgard.19 Recently, methods and
Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016
theoretical models have been developed that have a
high potential to provide accurate predictions for multi-
layer curtains either mounted in front of walls or freely
hanging in the room.18 In the prediction, the effects that
occur during testing in a reverberation room are consid-
ered, such as edge diffraction at the specimen20 and non-
uniform intensity distribution of the incident sound,21 as
well as the effects mentioned above already. However, to
date the models have only been validated with measure-
ments of the absorption coefficient for normal incidence
in the impedance tube,22 but not with measured data
ð1Þ models have been limited to flat curtains so far.
The objective of this study is therefore to extend the
existing models of Pieren and Heutschi,18 which are the
most recent available models, to the case of folded cur-
tains. Hereby, the focus lies on the general case of a
ð2Þ single fabric layer curtain. In the following, the existing
models of Pieren and Heutschi18 to predict the sound
absorption performance of curtains as measured in the
reverberation room are briefly outlined. The models are
then semi-empirically extended to the case of folded
curtains. Finally, predicted results are compared to
measured data from a reverberation room.
Theory and model development
In this section existing models for flat curtains are briefly
summarized and subsequently extended to the case of
curtains with drapery fullness. A fullness of 0% corre-
sponds to a flat curtain; a draped curtain having twice
the amount of fabric is referred to as 100% fullness. The
existing and extended models allow for a description of
the following four cases:
. case I: flat curtain in front of a rigid wall;
. case II: freely hanging flat curtain (without wall);
. case III: folded curtain in front of a rigid wall;
. case IV: freely hanging folded curtain (without wall).
Existing sound absorption models for flat curtains
(cases I and II)
The models discussed here originate from the model
presented by Pieren.17 The final model18 describes the
general case of sound absorption coefficients of flat,
lightweight, multilayer curtains, that is, the above
cases I and II. Below, the equations to predict the (dif-
fuse-field) sound absorption in reverberation rooms are
derived and simplified for the case of a single layer
curtain.
For case I, the considered set-up consists of a
thin sheet of fabric that is mounted at a well-defined
distance d in front of a rigid, that is, fully reflecting,
Pieren et al. 3

Figure 1. Sketch of case I with a fabric sheet at distance d to a rigid wall and of case II with a freely hanging fabric sheet without
air cavity.

surface forming an air cavity, as shown in Figure 1. resistance Rs (in Pa s/m)25 and the area density m
The thickness of the sheet is assumed to be small com- (in kg/m2) as7,11,12
pared to the wavelength of sound. It is further assumed
that a plane airborne sound wave is incident on this j!mRs
Zf ¼ ð3Þ
structure. The incident sound wave is then partially j!m þ Rs
reflected at, partially transmitted through, and partially pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
absorbed by the fabric. At the right-hand side of the air where j ¼ 1 is the imaginary unit, ! ¼ 2 f is the
cavity, the sound wave is fully reflected at the rigid wall angular frequency and f is the frequency in Hz.
and returns to the fabric from the opposite side, where As the geometric arrangement of the textile strongly
the wave is again partially reflected, transmitted and determines the acoustic field (see above), different equa-
absorbed. Hence, a complex sound field with interfer- tions for the absorption, based on the fabric material
ence of incoming and reflected waves is being built-up [Equation (3)] and the backing condition, need to be
in the cavity. This again strongly affects sound absorp- established. Further, for the backed or freely hanging
tion and, in particular, its frequency dependency. textile they have to be distinguished between S (case I)
In contrast to case I, in case II (Figure 1), where the and AObj (case II), respectively.
fabric is far away from any boundary, the transmitted For a flat fabric placed at a distance d (in m) to a
wave is not reflected, but propagates away from rigid wall, the statistical absorption coefficient is
the curtain. According to standard ISO 354,6 case I described by18
is characterized by S and case II by AObj , as in the   Z =2
latter case of the freely hanging curtain the actual sur- 8  < Zf wðÞ sin 
face area that is exposed to the incident sound is not S ¼   2 d
Z0 0  Z cotðk0 d cos Þ 
well-defined.  j
f
þ ZF ðÞ
Z0 cos 
The physical behavior of the above structures can be
described by physical models, such as the equivalent ð4Þ
circuit (EC) method23 that is well suited and broadly
used for this purpose.7,11,12,17,18,24 In this analogy, where < denotes the real part and k0 the wave number
mechanical and acoustical quantities or elements in air (k0 ¼ !=c0 ), Z0 ¼ 0 c0 is the characteristic impe-
are represented by equivalent electrical quantities or dance of air with air density 0 and speed of sound in
elements. Accordingly, the ratio of a sound pressure air c0 , w is a weighting function (see below) and ZF is
and a sound particle velocity yields an acoustical the averaged radiation impedance.20 The cotangent
impedance. term in Equation (4) introduces the frequency depen-
The fabric impedance Zf is defined as the ratio of the dency due to the air cavity. The integration is per-
sound pressure drop across the fabric and the sound formed over all angles of incidence  under which a
particle velocity inside the fabric. For thin fabrics this plane wave is incident on the fabric. Hereby, the
impedance fully characterizes the acoustical behavior of normal incidence case as measured in the impedance
the textile. It can be calculated from the specific airflow tube corresponds to  ¼ 0 and the grazing incidence

Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016

4 Textile Research Journal 0(00)

Figure 2. Sketch of cases III and IV of a folded thin curtain with an average distance d to a rigid wall and with folding depth b and
folding period p.

case with waves propagating parallel to the surface cor-
responds to  ¼ /2. The non-uniform intensity distri-
bution across the specimen in the reverberation room is
taken into account by a weighting function w. The fre-
quency dependent angle weighting function by Jeong21
was approximated by Pieren and Heutschi18 as
 (cases III and IV)
1:64  0:3    0:47  2 , f  350 Hz
wðÞ ¼
1, f 5 350 Hz
where  is the angle in radians.
The averaged radiation impedance ZF accounts for
the edge effect (typical overestimation of absorption
due to diffraction at the edges) of the specimen. ZF
depends on frequency, the angle of incidence  and
the size and shape of the specimen.20 It has to be eval-
uated numerically. For the case of a rectangular shape
of defined length and width, different numerical solu-
tions have been presented.18,26 For very large absorbers
it can be approximated by ZF ffi 1=cos .
For case II, the equivalent absorption area of a
freely hanging fabric of surface area S (in m2) may be
obtained by18
  Z =2
16S  < Zf sin 
AObj ¼   2 d
Z0 0  Zf 2 
 þ  folding period p (Figure 2). For this geometric situa-
Z cos 
0
It is interesting to note the similarities of Equations
(4) and (6) in the presented form, which is not obvious
in the general form of the equations presented by Pieren
and Heutschi.18
If ZF is calculated in advance [case I, Equation (4)],
then only three parameters need to be known to deter-
mine S from the above model. These input data are the
specific airflow resistance Rs and the area density m to
estimate the fabric impedance Zf [Equation (3)], as well
as the distance d. Also, the prediction of AObj [case II,
Equation (6)] only requires three parameters, namely
Rs , m and the surface area S.
New sound absorption models for folded curtains
ð5Þ In practical applications, instead of flat curtains often
folded curtains, that is, with fullness larger than 0%,
are used, where a fullness of 100% is most common.
Fullness influences the sound absorption of curtains.27,28
Until now, no model for the prediction of sound absorp-
tion by folded curtains is available. Based on theoretical
considerations, numerical simulations and conclusions
on measured data, a semi-empirical model for S and
AObj is derived in the following.
Commonly folded curtains are mounted in parallel to
a flat wall or window (case III), as depicted in Figure 2.
By introducing a certain degree of drapery fullness, the
distance of the fabric to the backing wall varies locally.
To characterize such a situation it is useful to use the
average distance d corresponding to the distance of
the curtain rail to the backing. The folding of the cur-
tain is described by only two additional geometrical
ð6Þ parameters, namely the folding depth b and the
tion, the model was derived based on the following two
assumptions.
Firstly, for a given fabric, the depth of the air cavity
strongly affects the frequency dependency of the absorp-
tion coefficient (as in the above case I). For a flat fabric
(case I), the air cavity depth d primarily determines the
frequencies of the local maxima and minima of the
absorption coefficient.18 A variation of the cavity depth
thus smoothes the frequency dependency of the absorp-
tion coefficient. Therefore, intuitively the variation of air

Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016

Pieren et al.
cavity depth is accounted for by averaging absorption
coefficients calculated for several discrete distances.
Secondly, the folding implicates that a portion of the
incoming and reflected sound waves traverses the fabric
more than once while passing the curtain. This effect is
expected to play a role only at grazing incidence and at
high frequencies. The corresponding wavelengths thus
have to be small compared to the folding. To model this
effect, a frequency and geometry dependent function 
is introduced.  describes the portion of sound energy
that traverses the fabric double compared to the flat
case. It may take values of 0    1.
With these two assumptions, the model for case III
may be derived by adopting the model of case I. We
propose a semi-empirical model for the statistical
absorption coefficient of folded curtains as follows
S ðd ¼ d  b=2Þ þ S ðd ¼ d þ b=2Þ
S ¼
2
In Equation (7), S is the arithmetic mean absorp-
tion coefficient of the two extreme cases, that is, the
fabric placed at d  b=2 to the rigid wall and at
d þ b=2. Both S values in Equation (7) are calculated
using Equation (4) with Rs and m of the fabric as input
data. From an energetic point of view, the sound
absorption coefficient of the folded curtain, S,fullness ,
can then be written as
S,fullness ¼ S þ   ð1  S Þ  S
In Equation (8), the expression in parentheses
describes the sound energy that is not absorbed by a
single fabric layer. A portion of this energy (ratio )
passes through the textile multiple times and is reduced
by S . The ratio  depends on the frequency f and the
geometry, namely folding depth b (in m) and folding
period p (in m), as defined in Figure 2.  is set to
 Equation (6) by applying the curtain covering area S*
0:5, if f 4 Fci ¼ 70=b and b 4 p=2
ð f, b, pÞ ¼
0, else
Equation (9) was established based on the following
considerations. For frequencies below a certain cut-in
frequency, Fci ,  is set to zero, as folding does not affect
sound absorption at low frequencies. For frequencies
above Fci ,  is set to a constant value for the matter of
simplicity. The non-zero value of  ¼ 0.5 was empiri-
cally determined from the available dataset (see
below) by systematic variation and visual inspection
to find the optimal fit to measured data. This value
implies that at high frequencies 50% of the sound
energy is affected by the folding, in the sense that it
traverses the fabric twice as often as in the flat case.
Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016
5
Further, Fci depends on the folding geometry
(cf. Figure 2). For b ! 0 (flat curtain) Fci tends to infi-
nity. If the whole geometry is scaled by a factor, Fci has
to be divided by this factor. These considerations define
the properties of Fci . The second free parameter of
Equation (9) is a constant scaling of Fci . The factor of
70 was also empirically determined from the available
dataset (see below) by visual inspection. For the studied
geometries, the resulting Fci is about 1 kHz. From the
expression for Fci , the corresponding wavelength yields
lci  b=5. This means that in the model, multiple tra-
verses only occur for sound waves with wavelengths
smaller than a fifth of the folding depth.
Finally, the folding depth has to be of the same order
of magnitude as or larger than the folding period. How
much larger is not critical, as fullness larger than 100%
does not provide any substantial change in S .29 This is
accounted for by the mutual condition for p and b. The
ð7Þ condition b 4 p=2 allows b to adopt somewhat smaller
values but also any larger value than p.
Note that the area density m used as input data in
Equation (7) is independent of fullness, even though the
total area density of the folded curtain increases because
of the total mass increase, whereas its area remains con-
stant. In fact, numerical simulations with a doubling of
the area densities (100% fullness) resulted in distinct
overestimations of S,fullness compared to measurements.
It thus appears that the fabric vibration is a local phe-
nomenon and, consequently, the area density of the
ð8Þ fabric equals the effective area density of the curtain.
In this study we also consider the situation with a
folded curtain mounted freely hanging in the diffuse
field of a room (case IV), as depicted in Figure 2. We
introduce a new equation for this case as an extension
of the equation of case II
AObj,fullness ¼ AObj þ   AObj ð10Þ
with the fullness efficiency factor . AObj is calculated by
ð9Þ (in m2) instead of the surface area S of the fabric. For
fullnesses of 0% and 100% with the same textile
sample, this means that S* ¼ S and S* ¼ 0.5S, respec-
tively. From the dataset that is presented in the follow-
ing sections, a value of  ¼ 0.7 was empirically
determined to optimally represent measurements for
100% fullness.
Materials and methods
For model development and validation, the diffuse-field
sound absorption of four textiles with varying acousti-
cal properties was measured under different backing
conditions and fullnesses, and also predicted using the
presented models.
6 Textile Research Journal 0(00)
Table 1. Non-acoustical parameters of fabrics
1–4.
Specific airflow Cutoff
Fabric Area density resistance frequency
ID m [g/m2] Rs [Pa s/m] fc [Hz]
1 64 45 100
2 83 150 290
3 97 155 250
4 130 350 430
Textile characteristics
In this study four different woven fabrics made of
synthetic materials (polyester) were used. Each fabric
consists of three to five different types of yarns with
linear mass densities of 24–1200 dtex. The fabrics
vary in terms of their weaving pattern. The warp and
weft densities are 50–65 yarns per cm. Table 1 presents
the characteristics of fabrics 1–4, which are necessary as
input parameters for the above models for cases I–IV.
The area density m was measured from a small sample
with a precision scale. The specific airflow resistance Rs
was determined from a sample of 10 cm radius by an
indirect measurement using an impedance tube.17
The cutoff frequency fc , a parameter to characterize
the effect of the vibration of the textile, was calculated
by fc ¼ Rs =ð2mÞ, as proposed by Pieren.17 In terms of
acoustical properties, the four fabrics cover a broad
range of lightweight textiles. Fabrics 2 and 3 have simi-
lar m and Rs values, but strongly differ from fabrics
1 and 4.
Measurements
Statistical absorption coefficients S and equivalent
sound absorption areas AObj were measured according
to the standard ISO 3546 for cases I–IV in the rever-
beration room of the Laboratory for Acoustics/Noise
Control at the authors’ institution, Empa. Table 2 gives
an overview on the configurations of the measured fab-
rics. According to the standard, the measurements were
performed in 1/3 octave bands from 100 Hz to 8 kHz.
Further, a frequency independent single number rating,
the so-called weighted sound absorption coefficient, w ,
was determined from frequency dependent measured S
according to the standard ISO 11654.30
Empa’s reverberation room has a volume of 215 m3
and a peculiar shape with all walls skewed and not
vertical to the floor. The room is equipped with hanging
sound diffusers to further increase its diffusivity and a
humidifier ensures a minimum relative humidity of
60% to reduce air absorption to minimum. Four fixed
Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016
Table 2. Measurement overview for the textiles 1–4 (according
to Table 1) and their configurations to obtain the statistical
absorption coefficient S and the equivalent sound absorption
area AObj .
Distance to wall
d or d or No
Case Description d ¼ 10 cm d ¼ 15 cm wall
I In front of wall, 1–4 1–4 –
0% fullness
II Freely hanging, – – 1, 2, 4
0% fullness
III In front of wall, 1 1–4 –
100% fullness
IV Freely hanging, – – 1, 2, 4
100% fullness
loudspeakers and six microphones are distributed in the
room to measure the spatially averaged reverberation
time with and without a test specimen. The reverbera-
tion time is evaluated using the so-called impulse
response method, where level decays and reverberation
times respectively are found by backward integration
of the measured room impulse response functions.
For the measurement of the impulse response function,
the reverberation room is excited with a maximum
length sequence (MLS) signal. Based on the difference
in reverberation time with and without a specimen, the
(diffuse-field) sound absorption of a test object or a test
material is calculated. The size of the reverberation
room requires test specimens with dimensions of typi-
cally 3 m  4 m. In the used reverberation room,
flat absorbers as well as specimens that require a well-
defined distance to a rigid backing, as for cases I and III
in this study, are placed in a fixed specimen zone on the
floor, which was determined during the qualification
procedure of the facility. To mount the textiles with a
well-defined distance to the floor, wooden rectangular
frames of 3 m  4 m with different heights with thin
tensioned wires attached at their top that span across
the test area were used (cf. Figure 3). The fabrics were
placed over these wires. For the flat case (case I), fabrics
of 3 m  4 m were used. The distance d to the rigid sur-
face (cf. Figure 1) was realized by using frame heights
of 10 or 15 cm. Measurements of folded curtains (case
III) were made with 100% fullness, that is, fabrics of
3 m  8 m were used. Figure 3 shows a photograph of a
fabric mounted on the wooden frame with 100% full-
ness. With a wire spacing of 9 cm, a folding period
p ¼ 9 cm was achieved (see close-up view in Figure 3),
which is a typical value for curtain systems. For the
folded fabrics this resulted in a folding depth b ¼ 7 cm.
The mean distance d to the rigid surface (cf. Figure 2)
was thus realized with frame heights of 13.5 and
Pieren et al.
case III
close-up view
case II
Figure 3. Photographs showing textiles during the measure-
ment in the reverberation room for the configuration of a folded
curtain (case III) and a freely hanging curtain (case II).
18.5 cm. For cases II and IV the fabrics were simply
hung up in the middle of the room on a wire that
span across the room (Figure 3).
Predictions
Statistical absorption coefficients S and equivalent
sound absorption areas AObj of the tested specimens
listed in Table 2 were predicted using the above-
described calculation models, which were implemented
in the commercial software package MATLAB, with
the following input data and parameters.
The calculations were performed at the center band
frequencies of 1/27 octave bands, and only the final
results were averaged to 1/3 octave bands. As a first
step, for each fabric its fabric impedance Zf was deter-
mined by Equation (3) using the values given in
Table 1. Zf was then inserted either into Equation (4)
or (6). To numerically solve the integrals in these equa-
tions, the angle  was discretized in steps of 2 , corre-
sponding to 0.035 radians. Further, the area S (in m2)
and cavity depth d (in m) was the same as in the experi-
ments. In Equation (4) the weighting function given
by Equation (5) was applied, and the averaged radia-
tion impedance ZF of a rectangle of 3 m  4 m was
once numerically calculated by the method given in
the appendix of Pieren and Heutschi18 and used for
all predictions. Statistical absorption coefficients of
folded curtains were predicted using Equations
Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016
7
(7)–(10) and the same input data as the in experiment,
and adopting the geometric parameters b and p as
determined during the measurements, that is, b ¼
0.07 m and p ¼ 0.09 m.
From the predicted absorption coefficients S in 1/3
octave bands, the weighted absorption coefficients w
were determined according to the procedure described
in the standard ISO 11654.30
Comparison of measured and
predicted data
In this section the measured and predicted results of
different textile specimens and configurations, accord-
ing to Table 2, are presented and compared for model
validation.
Flat curtains in front of wall (case I)
Figure 4 shows measured and predicted S for flat cur-
tains in front of a rigid wall (case I). Measured and
predicted results both confirm that S increases with
increasing specific airflow resistance within the studied
range (Table 1). Measured and calculated results gen-
erally agree well over the whole frequency range from
100 Hz to 8 kHz for all fabrics. Similar S values of
fabrics 2 and 3 agree well with the model. Also, distinct
differences to fabrics 1 and 4 are clearly reproduced.
Further, the calculations closely match the measured
spectral shape, that is, local maxima and minima of
S . This means that the interference between incoming
and reflected sound waves is predicted well by the
model. It can be observed that the local minima, corre-
sponding to half and full wavelength resonance of the
air cavity, are shifted by one third octave band to
higher frequencies in the present diffuse field case as
compared to the normal sound incidence. As an exam-
ple, for d ¼ 10 cm the local minima are at 2 and 4 kHz
(cf. Figure 4), while the minima occur at 1.7 and
3.4 kHz for normal sound incidence.17 Finally, the
absolute S values are sufficiently well predicted
although certain deviations may be observed.
In particular, the values at the local minima are
clearly more pronounced in the calculations than in
the measurements. Apparently, the model overesti-
mates the destructive interferences, which are less pro-
minent in measurements where non-ideal conditions,
such as residual absorption and scattering within the
air cavity, lead to a coherence loss, which remains unac-
counted for by the model. Further, at frequencies below
300 Hz, deviations between measured and calculated
data may be observed, particularly for fabric 1.
Predicted data slightly underestimates S compared to
measurement. However, predicted as well as measured
S values are relatively small and therefore prone
8 Textile Research Journal 0(00)

Distance to wall d = 10 cm Distance to wall d = 15 cm

1
Measurement
0.8 Prediction

Sample 1 0.6
aS
0.4

0.2

0
1

0.8
Sample 2

0.6
aS

0.4

0.2

0
1

0.8
Sample 3

0.6
aS

0.4

0.2

0
1

0.8
Sample 4

0.6
aS

0.4

0.2

0
100 1k 10 k 100 1k 10 k
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]

Figure 4. Measured and predicted statistical sound absorption coefficients for flat curtains in front of a rigid wall (case I) of
fabrics 1–4.

to greater relative uncertainty. In the measurements, S
is determined from the difference of reverberation time
in the empty reverberation room and when the test
specimen is installed. In the case of small measured
S values also the difference of the measured reverberation
times are very small. Thus, in this case small uncertainties
in measured reverberation time may lead to relatively large
uncertainties in S . Therefore, the difference between
measured and predicted data in this frequency range is
not significant in case of the flat curtains.
Finally, at high frequencies (above 2–4 kHz) the
model predicts systematically lower values than mea-
surements. The reason for this is not known. Three
hypotheses are now shortly discussed. A first possible
reason is the non-uniform intensity distribution during
the measurement. Although the model accounts for this

Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016

Pieren et al. 9

effect with Equation (5), this approximation may be

inadequate for high frequencies. However, the fact that 12
similar differences also occur for freely hanging curtains Measurement, folded
(see the next section) does not support this hypothesis. 9

Sample 1
Prediction, folded

A Obj [m2]
Secondly, generally also peculiarities of the laboratories
might play a role. Round robin tests between labora- 6
tories have revealed large inter-lab differences.31 A
third possible reason is the fabric impedance model 3
[Equation (3)], which assumes static airflow through
the fabric. This assumption may become inappropriate 0
at high frequencies where effects such as inertia of the air
moving inside the pores or flow distortions on both sides 12
of the fabric occur. These effects are omitted in the
applied model. To account also for these effects, the 9

Sample 2
2
A Obj [m ]
fabric impedance model would have to be extended.
However, for the development and validation of an 6
extended fabric impedance model, impedance tube mea-
surement data well above 2 kHz would be required, but 3
are currently only available up to 1.6 kHz.17 To investi-
gate this possible deficiency of the model, preliminary 0
impedance tube measurements were conducted on a
12
sample of fabric 4 up to 6.4 kHz. They in fact revealed
higher absorption coefficients at high frequencies than
what the model predicts. These findings support the 9
Sample 4
2
A Obj [m ]
hypothesis that the fabric model has to be refined to
more accurately predict the sound absorption coefficient 6
at high frequencies.
3

Freely hanging flat curtain (cases II and IV)

Figure 5 shows measured and predicted AObj for freely
hanging curtains. The values were adjusted by the cur-
tain covering area and normalized to a reference area
of 10 m2 for better comparison. AObj steadily increases
with frequency until it approaches a constant value at a
frequency depending on the area density and specific
airflow resistivity.18 The smooth shape of AObj is very
different from S for flat curtains (interference pattern)
in front of a rigid wall (case I, see above), but similar
to folded curtains in front of a rigid wall (case III,
see below).
The measurements show that for curtains with
identical covering areas, AObj of folded curtains is sig-
nificantly larger than that of flat curtains. The data
shows that introducing folding and increasing the
amount of textile by 100% leads to a 70% increase of
sound absorption. This demonstrates that fullness is
also beneficial for sound absorption of freely hanging
curtains.
Measurements and predictions closely agree from
100 Hz to more than 1 kHz. Above this, the model
increasingly underestimates AObj . Interestingly, the
underestimation at high frequencies is of similar magni-
tude as for S (Figure 4), which suggests that it is caused
by the same effect. If this is true, it can be concluded,
0
100 1k 10 k
Frequency [Hz]
Figure 5. Measured and predicted equivalent absorption areas
for flat and folded freely hanging curtains (cases II and IV) of
fabrics 1, 2 and 4. Shown values are normalized to a reference
area of 10 m2.
as for case I, that the discrepancies are not due to the
non-uniform intensity distribution.
Folded curtains in front of wall (case III)
Figure 6 shows measured and calculated S for folded
curtains in front of a rigid wall (case III). As for case I,
S of folded curtains again increases with increasing
specific airflow resistance within the studied range
(Table 1). In contrast to case I (Figure 4), S shows a
much smoother curve shape over the frequency range.
Apparently, because of varying air cavity depth, folding
significantly reduces the interference patterns, so that
local maxima and minima are much less pronounced.
Further, at high frequencies folding results in somewhat
higher S values compared to flat curtains (case I,
Figure 4).

Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016

10 Textile Research Journal 0(00)

1 1
Measurement case I
0.8 Prediction 0.8 case III
lin. reg.
CI

predicted aw
Sample 1

0.6 0.6 1:1

aS

0.4
0.4

0.2
0.2

0
0
1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
measured aw
0.8
Sample 2

0.6 Figure 7. Comparison of measured and predicted weighted

absorption coefficients w of flat (case I) and folded (case III)
aS

0.4 curtains. The asterisk denotes two overlaying points. The linear
regression line (R2 ¼ 0.956) and the 95% prediction band for
0.2 future estimates (PI) are shown in gray.

0 compared to case I the deviations are more pronounced.

1 This was expected because the model for case III was
developed based on case I and extended with relatively
0.8 simple semi-empirical corrections. The largest differences
occur for fabric 1 at frequencies below 700 Hz. As
Sample 3

0.6 already explained above, for the flat curtains, relatively

aS

small S are prone to greater measurement uncertainty.

0.4
Furthermore, these differences may also be induced
0.2
by non-ideal measurement conditions, such as the
wooden frame potentially acting as a membrane absor-
0 ber, which introduces additional sound absorption at
1
low frequencies.

0.8 Weighted absorption coefficient (cases I and III)

Sample 4

0.6 Figure 7 contains a comparison of measured and pre-

aS

dicted weighted absorption coefficients determined

0.4
0.2
0
100 1k
Frequency [Hz]
0.03. The
Figure 6. Measured and calculated sound absorption coeffi-
cients for folded curtains in front of a rigid wall (case III) of fabrics
1–4 for average distance to the backing wall d ¼ 15 cm. For fabric
1 also d ¼ 10 cm is shown in gray.
The model predicts the absorption satisfyingly well
in the measured frequency range from 100 Hz to 8 kHz
for all fabrics. As for case I, the model underestimates
measured S values at low as well as at high frequen-
cies. This suggests that the same mechanisms are
responsible for the observed discrepancies. However,
from the above data of cases I and III. The measured
and calculated values agree very well. The maximal
deviation of the predictions amounts to 0.05. In six
out of 13 data pairs, the prediction underestimates the
10 k measurement by 0.05, and zero otherwise. The differ-
ences of measured and predicted values thus exhibit a
mean value and standard deviation of 0.02
mean value does significantly differ from zero with a
probability of 0.99 (one-sample two-tailed t-test).
This integral comparison of predicted and measured
w thus further confirms the applicability of the calcu-
lation models. The models generally yield conservative
results, which means that the performance in real
rooms is better.
Thus, the models, amongst other purposes, can be
used to optimize w values by changing fabric para-
meters or curtain configuration. Exemplarily calcula-
tions reveal that increasing the average air cavity

Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016

Pieren et al. 11

depth d from 15 to 19 cm of a curtain with 100% full-
ness and made from fabric 4 (Table 1) would increase
w by 18% from 0.55 to 0.65 (cf. Figure 8).
Comparison of the presented model with
commercial software
This section is dedicated to a comparison of calculation
results by the presented model, and existing models that
are implemented in commercial software. To our
knowledge, no software specifically for the prediction
of sound absorption of curtains exists. However, there
are a few programs available that allow treating multi-
layer structures in front of a rigid wall. In these pro-
grams a flat curtain in front of a rigid wall (case I) may
be entered as two layers, that is, an air cavity of depth d
and a thin layer of porous material. In the following
0.7
0.65
0.6
aw
comparisons, the three commercial software packages
SoundFlow, Winflag and Zorba (randomly named
Software 1, 2, and 3 to maintain anonymity in the
results) were used as follows.
. AFMG SoundFlow, Demo Version 1.0.11 (Ahnert
Feistel Media Group, Berlin, Germany) with the fol-
lowing specific program settings. Porous absorber cal-
culation model: Bies/Hansen32 (only available model
of the basic version of SoundFlow); dimension ISO
354 (3 m  4 m); direction of incidence: diffuse field.
No information has been found concerning the calcu-
lation of random incidence absorption.
. WinFlag, Demo Version 2.4 (Morset Sound
Development, Trondheim, Norway) with the follow-
ing specific program settings. Reverb room, square
with side length 3.163 m; selected porous absorber
calculation model: Delany–Bazley.33 The calcula-
tion of the random incidence absorption coefficient
is based on Thomasson.20
. Zorba, Version 3.0.1 (Marshall Day Acoustics Ltd
Pty, Adelaide, South Australia). Selected porous
absorber calculation model: Allard–Champoux.34
The calculation of the random incidence absorption
coefficient is based on Thomasson.35

0.55

0.5 Figure 9 exemplarily compares the predicted sound

absorption coefficients s of two curtains with mea-
0.45 sured data. In most cases the commercial programs
clearly overestimate sound absorption at frequencies
0.4
0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3 0.35 0.4 below 500 Hz. These deviations strongly depend on
average air cavity size [m] the used program and the textile. The largest deviations
occur for fabric 4. Within the dataset this fabric fea-
Figure 8. Simulation result showing the weighted absorption tures the highest cutoff frequency of more than 400 Hz
coefficient w as a function of the average air cavity depth d for a (see Table 1), which suggests that sound-induced fabric
curtain consisting of fabric 4 and with 100% fullness. vibrations may play a role in that frequency range.

Sample 3, d = 10 cm Sample 4, d = 15 cm
1.2 Measurement
Presented model
1 Software 1
Software 2
0.8 Software 3
aS

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
100 1k 10 k 100 1k 10 k
Frequency [Hz] Frequency [Hz]

Figure 9. Comparisons of the sound absorption coefficient s of flat curtains predicted with the presented model and commercial
software packages. Fabric 3 with air cavity depth 10 cm (left) and fabric 4 with air cavity depth 15 cm (left) are shown.

Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016

12
1
0.8
predicted a w
0.6
presented model
0.4
presented model
software 1
0.2 software 2
software 3
1:1
0 ability of the models, in particular regarding higher spe-
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8
measured a w
Figure 10. Comparison of predictions of weighted absorption
coefficients w by the presented model and commercial software
packages. For each model, predicted values of eight flat curtains
(case I in Table 2) are compared to measured values (with some
overlaying points). The dashed lines show the linear regression
lines.
In contrast to the presented model, these vibrations are
not taken into account in the commercial programs,
which partially explains the observed deviations.
However, at frequencies above 1 kHz all calculation
models yield predictions mostly close to the measured
data. At these frequencies two commercial programs
closely agree with the presented model, whereas one
commercial program predicts very different 1/3 octave
band values. This can be attributed to the assumption
of local reaction within that software.36
As an integral comparison, Figure 10 shows the pre-
dicted and measured weighted absorption coefficients
w of eight flat curtains (case I in Table 2). As expected
from Figure 9, the commercial programs exhibit differ-
ent prediction performances. From the data points and
their linear regression lines it can be concluded that the
presented model outperforms the tested commercial
programs.
Conclusions
In this article, existing and new calculation models for
the diffuse-field sound absorption of textile curtains were
presented. The models cover flat as well as folded cur-
tains, and the configuration with a rigid backing and
without backing. For these cases modeling results were
compared to measured results from a reverberation
room. Generally, a very good agreement between mea-
sured and predicted values was observed. Comparisons
revealed only at high frequencies the potential for
further model improvements. Nevertheless, compared
to currently available commercial sound absorption
Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016
Textile Research Journal 0(00)
prediction software, the presented models not only
yield more accurate results, but also cover a broader
range of configurations, while the commercial software
can only handle the case of flat textiles with rigid back-
ing. The proposed method performs considerably better
than commercial software and can be a viable alternative
to experimentally measured values, which are prone to
uncertainties of similar magnitude. The models are
therefore applicable to textile development as well
as to room acoustical planning purposes. Although the
studied parameter range was quite remarkable, further
validations should be performed to extend the applic-
1 cific airflow resistances. The results further indicate that
future prediction model improvement could be achieved
by enhancing the fabric model.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research,
authorship and/or publication of this article.
References
1. Eggenschwiler K, Pieren R, Douglas A, et al. Leichte und
lichtdurchlässige schallabsorbierende Vorhänge. In: pro-
ceedings of the 38th German conference on acoustics
(DAGA 2012), Darmstadt, Germany, 19–20 March
2012, pp. 889–890. Berlin: Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Akustik e.V. (DEGA). ISBN: 978-3-939296-04-1.
2. Alonso A and Martellotta F. Room acoustic modelling of
textile materials hung freely in space: from the reverber-
ation chamber to ancient churches. J Build Perform Sim
2015; 9: 469–486.
3. Kuttruff H. Room acoustics. London: Elsevier Applied
Science, 1991.
4. ISO 3382-1:2009. Acoustics – measurement of room
acoustic parameters – Part 1: performance spaces.
5. Sabine WC. Collected papers on acoustics. Cambridge,
MA: Harvard University Press, 1922.
6. ISO 354:2003. Acoustics – measurement of sound absorp-
tion in a reverberation room.
7. Mechel FP. Schallabsorber – band I-III. Stuttgart: S.
Hirzel, 1989.
8. Allard JF and Atalla N. Propagation of sound in porous
media: Modelling sound absorbing materials, 2nd ed.
Chichester: Wiley, 2009.
9. Fuchs HV. Applied acoustics: Concepts, absorbers, and
silencers for acoustical comfort and noise control. Berlin:
Springer, 2013.
10. Kang J and Fuchs HV. Predicting the absorption of open
weave textiles and micro-perforated membranes backed
by an air space. J Sound Vib 1999; 220: 905–920.
Pieren et al.
11. Moholkar VS and Warmoeskerken M. Acoustical char-
acteristics of textile materials. Text Res J 2003; 73:
827–837.
12. Sakagami K, Kiyama M, Morimoto M, et al. Detailed
analysis of the acoustic properties of a permeable mem-
brane. Appl Acoust 1998; 54: 93–111.
13. Shoshani Y and Rosenhouse G. Noise absorption by
woven fabrics. Appl Acoust 1990; 30: 321–333.
14. Shoshani Y and Yakubov Y. A model for calculating
the noise absorption capacity of nonwoven fiber webs.
Text Res J 1999; 69: 519–526.
15. Dias T and Monaragala R. Sound absorbtion in knitted
structures for interior noise reduction in automobiles.
Meas Sci Technol 2006; 17: 2499–2505.
16. Chevillotte F. Controlling sound absorption by an
upstream resistive layer. Appl Acoust 2012; 73: 56–60.
17. Pieren R. Sound absorption modeling of thin woven fab-
rics backed by an air cavity. Text Res J 2012; 82:
864–874.
18. Pieren R and Heutschi K. Predicting sound absorp-
tion coefficients of lightweight multilayer curtains using
the equivalent circuit method. Appl Acoust 2015; 92:
27–41.
19. Atalla N and Sgard F. Modeling of perforated plates and
screens using rigid frame porous models. J Sound Vib
2007; 303: 195–208.
20. Thomasson S-I. On the absorption coefficient. Acustica
1980; 44: 265–273.
21. Jeong C-H. Non-uniform sound intensity distributions
when measuring absorption coefficients in reverberation
chambers using a phased beam tracing. J Acoust Soc Am
2010; 127: 3560–3568.
22. ISO 10534-2:1998. Acoustics – determination of sound
absorption coefficient and impedance in impedance
tubes – Part 2: transfer-function method.
23. Beranek LL. Acoustics. New York: McGraw Hill, 1954.
Downloaded from trj.sagepub.com at University of Otago Library on November 14, 2016
13
24. Maa DY. Microperforated-panel wideband absorbers.
Noise Control Eng J 1987; 29: 77–84.
25. Pieren R and Heutschi K. Modelling parallel assemblies
of porous materials using the equivalent circuit method.
J Acoust Soc Am 2015; 137: EL131–EL136.
26. ISO 9053:1991. Acoustics – materials for acoustical
applications - determination of airflow resistance.
27. Davy J, Larner D, Wareing R, et al. The acoustic radi-
ation impedance of a rectangular panel. Build Environ
2015; 92: 743–755.
28. Peutz VMA. Sound absorption of curtains. J Acoust Soc
Am 1970; 48: 80.
29. Del Rey R, Alba J, Blanes M, et al. The acoustic absorp-
tion of textile curtains on the function of the fullness.
Mater Construc 2013; 63: 569–580.
30. ISO 11654:1997. Acoustics – sound absorbers for use in
buildings – rating of sound absorption.
31. Jeong C-H and Chang J-H. Reproducibility of the
random incidence absorption coefficient converted from
the sabine absorption coefficient. Acta Acust United Ac
2015; 101: 99–112.
32. Bies DA and Hansen CH. Engineering noise control
theory and practice, 3rd ed, London: Spon Press, 2003.
33. Delany ME and Bazley EN. Acoustical properties of
fibrous materials. Appl Acoust 1970; 3: 105–116.
34. Allard J-F and Champoux Y. New empirical equation for
sound propagation in rigid frame fibrous material.
J Acoust Soc Am 1992; 91: 3346–3353.
35. Thomasson S-I. Theory and experiments on the sound
absorption as function of the area. Report TRITA-TAK-
8201, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden,
1982.
36. Jeong C-H. Guideline for adopting the local reaction
assumption for porous absorbers in terms of random inci-
dence absorption coefficients. Acta Acust United Ac 2011;
97: 779–790.