CHAPTER 2

PART 2
CONTENT
• Direct and Reverberant Sound Field
• Sound Absorber, Reflector and Diffuser
• Noise Indices for Indoor Environment
DIRECT & REVERBERANT
SOUND FIELD
 (Diffuse
field)

SOUND PROPAGATION

Direct sound decay at the same rate (free field

or diffuse field) of 6 dB per doubling the
distance.
The difference between free field and diffuse
field is the reflection of sound off the room
boundary surfaces inside the room.
In free field, sound will be diminished over
distance, but in diffuse field, the reflection of
sound from the surfaces will creates
disturbances and causing the sound pressure
level to increase by certain level from the
original sound source power level.
Multiple reflections thus will leads to
reverberant to occur.
ROOM ACOUSTICS & BUILDING
ACOUSTICS
➤ Room Acoustics
What surfaces help to create optimum
listening conditions in a room?
➤ Building Acoustics
What portion of the sound reaches the other sides of
the components?
ROOM ACOUSTICS
ROOM ACOUSTICS

Sound incident
ROOM ACOUSTICS

High energy
Sound incident reflection
ROOM ACOUSTICS

High energy Low energy

Sound incident reflection reflection
ROOM ACOUSTICS: DIFFUSE FIELD

High energy Low energy

Sound incident reflection reflection
DIFFUSE FIELD IN ROOM ACOUSTICS

A field which reflected waves arriving equally from all directions combined
with direct sound waves to produced uniform sound pressure at all points
within the field
DIFFUSE FIELD IN ROOM ACOUSTICS
• Behavior of sound within an
enclosed space
• Sound field in an enclosed space is
strongly affected by reflective
properties of the enclosing surfaces
in a room.
• Because of the reflective surfaces,
multiple reflections will occur and
reverberant field will established
in addition to the direct field from
the sound source.
• Therefore, at any point in an
enclosure, the overall sound
pressure level is a function of the
energy contained in the direct
and reverberant field.
Possible Paths for Early Sound Reflections
DIFFUSE FIELD IN
ROOM ACOUSTICS
• The effect of room surfaces
strongly affects the sound field
inside a room.
• It is important to understand the
room effects on the calculation
of sound pressure level in the
room containing a sound source
to meet the predetermined
acoustics design criteria in a
room
• In general, there are two sound
fields within a room;
1. Direct sound
2. Reverberant sound.
 DIRECT SOUND FIELD
• Direct sound is the sound that travels from the source to the receiver without undergoing reflecting at any
boundaries.

• The intensity is given by;

Where;

W = sound power (W) at the source

Qθ = directivity factor
π=3.14
r= radius or distance from source (m)
DIRECT SOUND FIELD
• Sound pressure level (Lp) due to direct sound, in term of the sound power level of the source is given by;

Where;

Lw = sound power level of the source

R=the distance from source (meters)
Qθ=directivity factor

• The value of Qθ is depends on the acoustics characteristics of the source, and on its position relative to the
room surfaces.
• If the acoustics characteristics of source are not known, then it is usually sufficient to assume a unidirectional
source and takes the value of Qθ appropriate to the source position in the room.
DIRECT SOUND FIELD
Position of source
Free field, Centre of room
On wall or on floor
at wall/ floor junction
Corner, wall/wall/floor
Full sphere Half sphere
Qθ = 1 Qθ = 2
Directivity Index, Diθ
Directivity factor, Qθ
(dB)
1 0
2 +3
4 +6
8 +9
Quarter sphere Eighth sphere
Qθ = 4 Qθ = 8
DIRECT SOUND FIELD
 ROOM ACOUSTICS: DIFFUSE FIELD

Time Reverberant Sound incident

High energy Low energy
Direct Field reflection reflection
Field
REVERBERANT FIELD

• In free field condition, there are no surfaces obstructing the

propagation of sound.
• Sound field in a room travels only a short distance before it strikes a
surface.
• As all of the reflected sound rays have struck at least one boundary,
the sound pressure level of the reverberant sound depends on the
amount of absorption at the boundary materials.
• The reverberant sound level builds up to a level where the rate of
supply of sound energy from the source, is equal to the rate at which
it is absorbed at the room surfaces.
REVERBERANT FIELD

A collection of many reflected sounds which blend

overlap into the room is called reverberation.
REVERBERANT FIELD
• The reverberant sound pressure level Lp(rev) depends on the sound power level of the source (LW)
and a quantity called the room constant (Rc),
• The Rc is depends on the total area of the room surfaces, S and the average absorption coefficients
of the room surfaces .

Where Rc ;
REVERBERANT FIELD
• All objects in a room, e.g. people, furniture, the cloth that your wear etc. provides absorption.
• Therefore, the absorption value of each absorptive surfaces must be taken into account when calculating the
average sound absorption coefficient value of the room.
• The average sound absorption value is calculated using below formula;

where, s is surface area and α is sound absorption coefficient of a material.

TOTAL SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL IN AN
ENCLOSED SPACE
• Thus, the total sound pressure level, LP(total) in an enclose space/room is the sum of pressure from the source
with the direct sound field and reverberant field.
• The formula is written as;

Power level from Power level from direct and

source reverberant
REVERBERANT FIELD
• Total sound pressure level in diffuse field;

Source Diffuse Reverberant

sound sound Sound
pressure pressure pressure
level level level
EXERCISE
The sound power level of an automatic routing machine which located on the floor is 100dB. The machine is to
be installed in a small factory of 20 m (length) x 8 m (width) x 5 m (height). If the room constant of the factory
is 700 m2, calculate the sound pressure level at the operator position, which is 8 meters from the router.
Consider the room consists of both direct and reverberation sound paths.

Location of source Qθ = 2
Volume of room,V: 20x8x5=800m3
Sound pressure level at operator, radius= 8 metres:

79.1dB@ ± 79 dB
 SOUND ABSORBER,
REFLECTOR & DIFFUSER
ACOUSTICS MATERIALS: ABSORBER, REFLECTOR
& DIFFUSER

-Panel resonators on ceiling and wall

Acoustic panels underside Sound reflecting panels on ceiling

Acoustic pads on wall
of walkways
ABSORBER
ABSORBER
POROUS ABSORBER
• Include glass fiber, miner fiber, fiberboard, acoustical ceiling tile, cotton, pressed wood
shaving oriented to foster pores, cotton, velour, felt and open-celled foams.
• The absorption coefficient of porous absorber generally rise with frequency.
• Sound absorption coefficient of porous absorber are high at most broadband frequency
making this material to be the most commonly specified to deaden a room.
• Sound is able to enter the open structures of the porous absorber’s material. The friction of
air particles, the sound energy is converted into thermal energy at the surface of the pores.
• Achieve their best effect at medium and high frequencies.
ABSORBENCY OF FELT MATERIAL AT
DIFFERENT THICKNESS
POROUS ABSORBER
PANEL ABSORBER/MEMBRANE
ABSORBER

• Typically, panel absorbers are non-rigid, non-porous materials

which are placed over an airspace that vibrates in a flexural
mode in response to sound pressure exerted by adjacent air
molecules.
• include thin wood paneling over framing, lightweight
impervious ceilings and floors, glazing and other large surfaces
capable of resonating in response to sound.
• usually most efficient at absorbing low frequencies. This fact
has been learned repeatedly on orchestra platforms where thin
wood paneling traps most of the bass sound, robbing the room
of “warmth.”
VOLUME RESONATOR/HELMHOLTZ
RESONATOR
• absorb sound in a narrow frequency range.
• include some perforated materials and materials that have
openings (holes and slots).
• the resonant frequency is governed by the size of the opening,
the length of the neck and the volume of air trapped in the
chamber.
• typically, perforated materials only absorb the mid-frequency
range unless special care is taken in designing the facing to be as
acoustically transparent as possible.
REFLECTOR
 Reflected sound can, if properly directed, effectively
augment the direct sound.

 But to avoid echo, the extra distance that first

reflections travel farther than the direct path should
not be over 60 feet (20m)

 Reflecting surfaces should generally flat; but in

certain area it may curved to concentrate the sound
on specific locations.

 Just as properly arranged reflecting surfaces can

assist in distributing sound, inappropriate surfaces
can have an undesirable effect. Multiple reflection within a room
REFLECTED SOUND
➤ Sound waves travel in rays that reflect off of
surfaces according to Snell’s Law: the angle
of reflection equals to the angle of incidence.

Concave forms tend to focus sound in general,

while convex forms help diffuse sound. Thus,
many concert hall acousticians refrain from using
concave forms and try to add additional convex
shapes to increase diffusion through the hall.
 REFLECTOR (CONCAVE)

• Rooms with concave surfaces tend to focus sound reflections in specific areas, leaving acoustic "dead spots" elsewhere.

• A "whispering gallery" is a room in which two participants can stand near a curved surface and hear each other's
whispering with startling loudness and clarity

• Concave surfaces are generally to be avoided in performance halls of any kind because they focus sound in some
areas and leave other areas with insufficient sound.
REFLECTOR (CONVEX)

• Random, irregular room surfaces can be designed to

• Convex surfaces, scatter scatter and reflect sound in patterns that distribute sound
reflected sound widely, helping more or less evenly to all listeners.
reinforce sound levels in all parts of • Acoustical design for a music performance hall often
a room includes convex and irregular surfaces
REFLECTOR APPLICATION
➤ Bing Concert Hall,
Stanford, CA

Disney Concert Hall,

Los Angeles
REFLECTOR APPLICATION
REFLECTOR: ANGLE OF PLACEMENT
REFLECTOR: ANGLE OF PLACEMENT
REFLECTOR: ANGLE OF PLACEMENT
REFLECTOR: ROOM SHAPE
REFLECTOR: ROOM SHAPE
REFLECTOR: ROOM SHAPE
 REFLECTOR: ROOM SHAPE

• In the auditorium, sound is more pleasing if it is evenly

dispersed, with no prominent echoes, no significant "dead
spots" or "live spots".
• A good auditorium will accomplish effective projection of
the sound to the rear of the auditorium so that those distant
listeners will not experience the extreme loss of sound level
• That projection is normally achieved by a high, reflective
ceiling to reflect sound to the back of the auditorium.
DIFFUSER

• Diffusion is the scattering of sound waves,

reducing the sense of localization.
• This scattering of sound gives a good mix of
sound and is particularly beneficial for music
as it allows the listener to feel enveloped in
the sound.
• Diffusion spreads the reverberant sound
evenly throughout a room, which not only
prevents standing waves but also eliminates
dead spots.
DIFFUSER

• Diffuser is an important tool because it can be used to combat

echoes without reducing the overall acoustic energy in the room, as
would be typical of absorptive panels.
• When a sound wave impacts a diffusive surface, the sound waves are
reflected in multiple directions, unlike a flat surface, which would
reflect the wave at an angle opposite to the angle of incidence.
• Diffusion makes a space sound bigger and so is useful in smaller
rooms such as recording studios. It is also beneficial in regular
shaped rooms to help break up standing waves / room modes.
DIFFUSER
• Sound reflecting panels & diffusers always
used on ceiling & wall which can be applied
to both new construction and renovation of
existing spaces.
• Common applications include:
• improving sound distribution;
• correcting sound focusing points;
• increasing sound levels in rooms where
a sound amplification system may not
be appropriate.
NOISE INDICES FOR INDOOR
ENVIRONMENT
REFER TO ATTACHED HANDOUTS ON GUIDELINES WHO