RESEARCH ON THE REVERBERATION ABSORPTION

COEFFICIENT OF MATERIAL MEASURED BY UNDERWATER

REVERBERATION FIELD METHOD

Yang Song*, Zhen –qi Zhao, Wei Zhang, Sheng-qi Yu

Science and Technology on Underwater Acoustic Laboratory, Harbin Engineering University Harbin 150001, China
*
Corresponding author, E-mail: syang0917@163.com; Tel.: 86-0451-82589600

In this article, an underwater reverberation time model of a rubber board is established. Then a theory formula of
reverberation time T(rm,λm) is given according to the energy relation of sound field in the reverberation chamber. rm is the
reflecting fraction and λm is the absorption fraction, when sound wave is injected to a rubber board. rm and λm can be
resolved base on the wave theory and boundary condition. In addition, rm and λm are related to acoustic parameters of the
rubber board. T(rm,λm)computed by formula and reverberation time T0 measured in underwater space without material
are all taken to Eyring formula, thus reverberant absorption coefficient of measured material can be forecasted. The edge
effect due to the material is avoided using this method. In the simulation results of reverberation time and sound
absorption coefficient agree with fact ruler. In pool experiment, reverberation time was measured in two cases. One case
is that there is only water in the experimental water area, and another case is that the sample is put in water. The
measurement results of the pool show the reverberant time T(rm,λm)with rubber board is shorter than the reverberant time
T0 without rubber board, since absorption rubber board accelerates the speed of reverberant attenuation. The reverberant
time T(rm,λm) by experiment agree with the theory result. The sample frequency characteristic of the reverberation
absorption coefficient accords with theory result.

Keywords: Reverberation charm; Underwater reverberation field; Reverberation time; Coefficient of absorption

1. INTRODUCTION as[4]
B ( A + Λ1C )t
The reverberation absorption coefficient of material is − E01 (Λ 2 + )e
one of important parameters which represent average E1 ≈ D (1)
( Λ 2 − Λ1 )
sound absorption character in the condition of irregular
incidence. Now the reverberation absorption coefficient
E01 —the energy density in the space I before the sound is
of material is usually measured in the air reverberation
chamber[1,2,3]. In this article, the reverberation stopped
absorption coefficient of absorption material is
Λ1 , Λ 2 —the solution of the equation
forecasted and measured in underwater reverberation
space. CΛ 2 + ( A − D ) Λ − B = 0

where
2. REVERBERATION TIME MODEL
− c[ S m (1 − rm ) + S w + ( S 0 − S m )α 0 ] (2)
The geometry of a rubber board suspended in an A=
4V1
underwater space is shown in Fig.1. There is a sound
source in it. The rubber board is parallel to the wall. The
c[ Sm (1 − rm − λd ) + S w ] (3)
distance is h between them. The board is far enough from B=
4V1
the wall. So the underwater space is divided into two
parts. One is space I and another is space II. The volume
c[ S m (1 − rm − λd ) + S w ] (4)
of space I is V1, and the volume of space II is V2. C=
4V1
If the space I and the space II are approximate
diffuse-field, the energy densities could be expressed

978-1-4673-1078-9/11/$26.00 ©2011 IEEE

1
 − c[ S m (1 − rm ) + S w + S mα 0 ] (5)
D= 0.5

4V2 0.48
Simulation results of the pool
Simulation results of the rubber board

0.46
Sm is one side area of the board. Sw is surface area of
the column of space II. S0 is area of inner surface of the

Reverberation time(s)
0.44

underwater space.E1 and E2 is energy density of the space 0.42

I and the space II. α0 is average reverberation absorption 0.4

coefficient of underwater space without plan rubber. W is 0.38

acoustic power of the source. c is sound velocity. t is 0.36

time. rm is sound energy fraction reflected by the board 0.34

for random incidence and λd is sound energy fraction
0.32
absorbed by the rubber board for random incidence. rm 5 10
Frequency(kHz)
15 20

and λm can be resolved base on the wave theory and

Figure 2. Simulation results of reverberation time when
boundary condition. In addition, rm and λm are related to
the rubber board is put in the water and when
acoustic parameters of the rubber board.
the rubber board was not put in the water
When E1=0.000001E01, the attenuation time T is
given. That is In the Fig.2, it was shown that T was shorter than T0
because the sound absorption rubber accelerated the
Λ2 + B / D decay rate. In addition, the absorption characteristic of
[ln + 13.8]
Λ 2 − Λ1 (6) the rubber board would be enhanced with the frequency
T =−
A + Λ 1C increasing. So the reverberation time decreased with
frequency increasing in Fig.2.

4. RESULTS OF EXPERIMENT

The volume of the pool was 12×5×4m3. In the

experiment the receiver and transmitter were separated,
and settled according to the demand. Twenty attenuation
curves were measured at different frequencies and place.
T and T0 were calculated using attenuation curves.

0.42
Measurement results of the pool
0.4 Measurement results of the rubber board

0.38
Reverberation time(s)

0.36
Figure 1. Geography of underwater space
0.34

0.32
3. SIMULATION OF REVERBERATION TIME 0.3

There was a square rubber board. Its length was 1m and

0.28

the thickness was 0.1m. As shown in Fig.1, the square

0.26

0.24
rubber board was suspended in an enclosed underwater 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
Frequency(kHz)
6.5 7 7.5 8

space. The volume of space was 12×5×4m3. The average

sound absorption coefficient of underwater space wasα0
before the rubber board was put in. Sound absorption
coefficient of the pure water α = 20.6 × 10 −14 f 2 . The
w
absorption of the wall was rather less than the water, so
α 0 ≈ α w It was known that h=5m. According to Eq.(2),
the reverberation timeT0 of underwater space and the
reverberation time T of the rubber board could be given.
The result was shown in the Fig. 2.
Figure 3. Measured results of reverberation time when
rubber board is in the pool and when rubber
board was not in the pool
As shown in Fig.3, the reverberation time T of
rubber board in the pool was shorter than the
reverberation time T0 without rubber board, for the
rubber board absorbs the sound energy. The results of
Fig.3 agreed with the simulation results. If T0 was
substituted to the Eyring reverberation formula[2], the

2
reverberation absorption coefficient α0 of the pool could that the variation tendency of the theory results and
be given. In addition, the reverberation time T of the measurement results is similar in Fig.5. So it could be
rubber board was related to the acoustic parameters of believed that the theory model of reverberation time was
the rubber. Then α0 and acoustic parameters were some valid about predicting the theoretical value of
substituted to Eq.(2) to predict the reverberation time T reverberation time of sample.
of the rubber. The results were shown in Fig. 4 and Fig.
5. 5. CORRECTION OF EDGE EFFECT AND
NONUNIFORM SOUND FIELD
0.45
Theory results
Fujiwara provided a result to correct the sound
0.4 Measurement results
absorption coefficient by considering the edge effect and
0.35 the nonuniform energy in sound field[4]:
0.3
Reverberation time(s)

0.25 α rp = 2λd − λ2d /(1 − rm ) （3）

0.2

0.15
In this article, absorption coefficient of the rubber
0.1 board in the pool was computed by Eyring formula[2].
0.05 And another group of reverberation time data measured
0 in a water tank was also used for computing the
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Frequency(kHz) absorption coefficient of the rubber board. The corrected
sound absorption coefficient of rubber board was
Figure 4. Theory results and measurement results of the pool
calculated according to Eq.(3). Three group computation
reverberation time T0 results of absorption coefficient were displayed in the
Fig.6. It could be seen that the average relative error of
0.4
absorption coefficient was about 3.7% between the
Theory results
Measurement results
experimental results in the pool and theoretical corrected
0.35
results. And the average relative error of absorption
0.3 coefficient was about 1.14% between the experimental
results in water tank and theoretical corrected results.
Reverberation time(s)

0.25
Because the measurement accuracy of reverberation time
0.2 in water tank was better than in the pool, the average
relative error of absorption coefficient in water tank was
0.15
better than in the pool. So the corrected formula could be
0.1 utilized to predict reverberation absorption coefficient of
0.05
absorbing material.
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Frequency(kHz)
0.82

Corrected results
Figure 5. Theory results and measurement results of the rubber board 0.81
Pool results
0.8 Water tank results
reverberation time T
Eyring absorption coefficient

0.79

0.78
In the experiment, the reverberation time T0 was not 0.77

measured at 5kHz, 10kHz and 15kHz and they were 0.76

gotten through fitting the existing data in Fig.4. It could 0.75

be seen that the relative error was small between theory 0.74

reverberation time and measurement time in Fig.4. Using 0.73

T0 and the acoustic parameters of the rubber at 5kHz, 0.72

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Frequency(kHz)
10kHz and 15kHz in Eq. (2), the theory results T could
be gotten and marked with □ in Fig.5. But there were no Figure 6. Absorption coefficient of reverberation
reference acoustic parameters of the rubber at the computed by measured data and corrected
measurement frequencies, it was difficult to give theory formula
results of T at these frequencies in Fig. 5. It was found

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6. CONCLUSION
First, in this article the formula to calculate the
reverberation time is used to predict the reverberation
absorption coefficient of underwater absorption material.
If the reverberation time of underwater space and
acoustic parameters of material are known, the
reverberation time could be calculated according to this
formula. Then the reverberation absorption coefficient of
underwater absorption material could be given in the
Eyring formula. The simulation results show that the
attenuation law of the reverberation time is similar with
the actual law.
Second, in the experiment study, this method is
applied to predict reverberation time of a piece of rubber
board in the pool. The frequency characteristic of
reverberation time measured in the pool is similar to the
simulation results.
Third, the corrected formula is also available in
predict the reverberation absorption coefficient of the
material. The relative error between computed results of
corrected formula and experimental results of under
water could be accepted.
Finally, the important work in the future is to design
a theory model for inversing acoustic parameters of
absorption material basing on the method of this article.
And it is desired that the inversion model could be
proved in the experiment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The work was supported by National Laboratory
Foundation of Underwater Acoustic Technology
(Nos.9140C2007010805) and the Natural Science
Foundation of China (Nos.11104045)
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distributed absorption. Applied Acoustics 64 :845–862,
2003.
[3] Billon A, Picaut J, Sakout A. Prediction of the
reverberation time in high absorbent room using a
modified-diffusion model. Applied Acoustics 69: 68–74,
2008.
[4] Fujiwara K, Makita Y. Reverberant sound absorption
coefficient of a plane space absorber. Acustica 39:
340-346, 1978.