Simulation of Room Acoustics Using Comsol Multiphysics
Simulation of Room Acoustics Using Comsol Multiphysics
Simulation of Room Acoustics Using Comsol Multiphysics
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Introduction
Noise is a serious environmental problem. According to The core programs for modeling in acoustics are
the data from the EU Survey on Income and Living Con- Sound PLAN, AFMG, Sound Flow WinFLAG, Comsol
ditions for the year 2015, 15.6% of Lithuanians declared multiphysics, ANSYS, Odeon, Roomsim.
they were affected either by noise from neighbours or from Models of properties of acoustic waveguides are use-
the street; 14.8% of Lithuanians declared they were ful in many applications where acoustic waveguides are
affected by pollution, grime or other environmental prob- used. Rund describes a simple and useful tool implemen-
lems (Directive E. U. 2002). ted in Matlab which allows rapid analysis of transfer pro-
Modeling software allows evaluating the acoustic perties of an acoustic waveguide with certain shape and
properties of environment. Considerable amount of re- dimensions (Rund 2005).
search is devoted to such programs and their application in Currently there is a variety of tools available to simu-
acoustics. late the room acoustics of echoic environments such as the
Modeling is also an important step in the develop- commercial architectural simulators Odeon or EASE.
ment of the sound absorbtion plate in order to explore the However, the focus of these software packages is on the
porous structure. Models include specific geometric pa- naturalization and architectural analysis of geometrically
rameters: perforation diameter, hole spacing, panel thick- complex rooms such as churches, concert halls, etc. This
ness, and depth of back air cavities etc. (Song et al. 2016). level of sophistication is not necessarily required for the
Calculated parameters include absorption and reflection analysis of three-dimensional audio techniques/algorithms
coefficients, transmission loss, input impedance, reflection or evaluation of microphone arrays in echoic envi-
factor and ransmission factor. ronments. A room acoustics simulation tool which caters
Several methods of modeling room acoustics, e.g. more for evaluating signal processing algorithms is the fre-
finite element method (FEM) and boundary element ely available shoebox room acoustic simulator developed
method (BEM) were used in the attempt of solving the by Schimmel et al. for MATLAB (Wabnitz et al. 2010).
wave equation numerically (Siltanen et al. 2008).
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O. Khrystoslavenko, R. Grubliauskas. Simulation of room acoustics using Comsol Multiphysics
The Roomsim program simulates the geometrical ac- perforated panels and plates (concrete, gypsum, plywood,
oustics of a perfect rectangular parallelepiped room vo- etc.) (Ahnert 2011–2016). Calculated parameters include
lume using the image source model to produce an impulse absorption and reflection coefficients, transmission loss,
response from each omnidirectional primary source to a input impedance, reflection factor and transmission factor
directional receiver system that may be a single sensor, a (Horan 2014).
sensor pair or a simulated head. The Allen and Berkley al- Room acoustic modelling techniques and especially
gorithm has been extended to include frequency dependent the room acoustic computer models have developed over
sound absorption coefficients. Using this, the Roomsim the last decades (Rindel 2002) and highly accurate pre-
program provides the ability to select different materials diction models are available today. Although the room ac-
for each of the six major surfaces of the simulated room oustic modelling technique has originally been devoted to
from a list of (at present) 20 standard building materials the acoustic prediction and design of auditoria, the prob-
(plus 4 synthetics, including anechoic) (Campbell et al. lems are equally challenging in work rooms, and to a great
2005). extent the same methods can be adopted (Rindel 2010).
Sound PLAN utilizes the thermoviscous acoustic in- The reciprocity principle is well-known and has
terface in a submodel to obtain detailed results for the many applications in acoustics and vibro-acoustics. This
transfer impedance of a perforated plate (including the paper discusses a reciprocity measurement method to de-
thermal and viscous losses). The software programs allow termine the radiation efficiency of a vibrating structure. An
to work with several configurations of the parameters. Si- acoustic finite element model of the two plates has also
milar configuration for both programs is required. been developed in order to provide a reference for the two
The impedance is in turn used as an internal impe- types of measurement. Commercial software (Comsol
dance in a pressure acoustics model of a muffler. The re- Multiphysics) has been used (Squicciarini et al. 2015).
sults are compared to classic impedance models and The main drawback of the latter and other inverse
measurements. characterization procedures is the requirement of test
Noise levels can be calculated using the program samples, which increases product development costs in the
Sound PLAN. A new method for urban road noise pre- early stages, thus limiting their popularity in the manu-
diction based on the original source and propagation mo- facturing industry of sound absorbing materials. In this
dels has been proposed (Guo et al. 2013). context, complementary modeling and characterization
Acoustic modeling by AFMG Sound Flow. Various techniques must be developed. The main aim of this work
types of modeling software have proven to be valuable de- is to study some perforated plates backed by an air cavity
sign tools for many aspects of acoustical design and noise using a finite element methodology (FEM). For this pur-
control. Software packages are available to model design pose, the thermo-acoustics interface included in the acous-
parameters such as environmental noise, exterior noise tics module of Comsol 4.3 b software is used (Pi et al.
propagation, reverberation time, absorption coefficients 2014).
and ratings such as sound transmission class (STC) and The Comsol Multiphysics Group was founded by Mr.
impact insulation class (IIC). Many types of auralizations Svante Littmarck and Mr. Farhadin in Sweden, in 1986.
can also be digitally created. The Comsol Multiphysics software has been widely used
The calculation engine of AFMG SoundFlow is an in various domains of science research and engineering
accurate implementation based on the theory of sound ab- calculations, for example, it was used in global numerical
sorbers developed by Mechel, Bies and others. Various simulation. Following the major boost brought by
computational models are available, including the calcula- computer technology, more and more computer software
tions according to the ISO 12354 standard. All results can has been widely developed and used in the arena of
be exported as tables, graphs, complete reports and as engineering. The usage of software can help engineers to
EASE material files. solve problems efficiently. Comsol Multiphysics is the
AFMG Sound Flow (hereafter referred to as software enabling the engineer to not only make drawings
SoundFlow) is a simulation program developed by Ahnert but also carry out physical analysis (Xiong 2010).
Feistel Media Group (AFMG) located in Berlin, Germany. Finite Element Model used to analyse sound propa-
AFMG is well known in the acoustical and audio-visual gation in lined ducts was researched to determine the
communities for other software packages, such as EASE, sound attenuation inside the lined duct. The Time-harmo-
EASERA and SysTune. SoundFlow allows the user to nic analysis model type has been used in Comsol Mul-
construct a virtual assembly from a variety of absorbers, tiphysics. The numerical model was used to predict the
2
O. Khrystoslavenko, R. Grubliauskas. Simulation of room acoustics using Comsol Multiphysics
insertion loss inside rectangular lined ducts in a frequency Using Comsol Multiphysics Comsol pressure acous-
range from 250 Hz to 4000 Hz. tics, frequency domain (acpr) the problem can be solved in
A numerical finite element model of a perforated pa- the following ways:
nel including these loss mechanisms was implemented. a) Geometry modeling. According to the subject’s
For this purpose, the linearized Navier-Stokes model shape and the condition of the question, a model
included in the commercial package Comsol Multiphysics (1D, 2D, or 3D) is established in Comsol. An
was used (Sakagami et al. 2006). example of room geometry is given in Figure 1.
The program Comsol Multiphysics has been an e-
ffective simulation tool used to conduct numerical calcu-
lations of the sound propagation and absorption properties
of materials in practical engineering.
Results of the related analyses show that ANSYS has
been an effective simulation tool in numerical calculation
of the sound propagation and absorption properties of
materials in practical engineering. However, if the
investigation is carried out at a fundamental level and deep
access to the physics involved is required, time being
secondary, it is preferable to use Comsol. The program is
designed for scientific research; Comsol is oriented more Fig. 1. Comsol 3 D model
towards the academia and provides a simple, easy to use
b) Physics modeling. Pressure Acoustics, boundary
interface. ANSYS is more industry oriented. Simulation
condition for a sound hard boundary or wall – it
by Win FLAG calculates the absorbtion coefficient,
can set boundary conditions on the interface of di-
impedance, sound reduction index; this program has not
fferent materials. It can also set boundary condi-
got such a wide range of opportunities compared to
tions on the interface between material and the
Comsol and ANSUS. Sound PLAN is not to be used for
environment. Normal Velocity node in time-har-
scientific research, it is an industry oriented product.
monic analysis to specify the velocity component
AFMG Sound Flow has limitations in the materials that
Impedance node adds an impedance boundary con-
can be used for modeling. AFMG Sound Flow does not
dition, which is a generalization of the sound-hard
have as much functions as Comsol and ANSUS.
and sound-soft boundary conditions.
c) Resulting sound pressure level.
Methodology The prediction that speakers placed in the corners of
The main problem of the research is related to the propa- the room excite many eigenmodes and give a fuller and
gation of a sound wave in the room. This can be solved more neutral sound, however, holds for real-life rooms.
using the module of pressure acoustics, frequency domain. The Frequency Domain study and study step are used
The interface is designed for the analysis of various types to compute the response of a linear or linearized model
of pressure acoustics problems in the frequency domain, subjected to harmonic excitation for one or several
all concerning pressure waves in a fluid. An acoustics mo- frequencies.
del can be a part of a larger multiphysics model that descri- For example, in solid mechanics, it is used to com-
bes, for example, the interactions between structures and pute the frequency response of a mechanical structure with
acoustic waves. respect to particular load distributions and frequencies. In
In this study a room with the dimensions 5×4× 2.6 me- acoustics and electromagnetics, it is used to compute the
ters equipped with a flat-screen TV, a sideboard, two spea- transmission and reflection versus frequency. A Frequency
kers, and a couch was modeled. To illustrate the effects on Domain study step accounts for the effects of all eigenmo-
the music, a few resonance frequencies in the vicinity of des that are properly resolved by the mesh and how they
different frequencies were computed. couple with the applied loads or excitations. The output of
When simulating acoustics, or any wave phenome- a Frequency Domain study step is typically displayed as a
non in general, it is important to resolve the expected wa- transfer function, for example, magnitude or phase of de-
velength problem properly. formation, sound pressure, impedance, or scattering para-
meters versus frequency.
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O. Khrystoslavenko, R. Grubliauskas. Simulation of room acoustics using Comsol Multiphysics
The zero level on the dB scale varies with the type of Most impedance models only exist in the frequency
fluid. That value is a reference pressure that corresponds domain. The only exception is the user defined impedance
to 0 dB. This variable occurs in calculations of the sound which can be applied also in the time domain.
pressure level Lp based on the root mean square (rms) The sound pressure level
pressure prms, such that The sound pressure level Lp,i in the ith element is
p 1 ρ cI w,i
p = 20log rms with prms = p p, (1) Lp,i = 10 log , (5)
pref 2 pref , SPL
where pref is the reference pressure and the star represents where ρ is the density of the fluid, c is the speed of sound,
the complex conjugate. This is an expression valid for the and pref,SPL is the reference pressure corresponding to 0 dB.
case of harmonically time-varying acoustic pressure p. Note that the base-10 logarithm is used. One can create
Select a Reference pressure for the sound pressure le- own geometry or use geometry from literature sources.
vel based on the fluid type:
− use reference pressure for air to use a reference Results
pressure of 20 μPa (20·10 −6 Pa). The sound pressure level (SPL) calculated at 100 Hz is
Impedance shown in Figure 2.
The Impedance node adds an impedance boundary
condition, which is a generalization of the sound-hard and
sound-soft boundary conditions:
1 iω pt
− n · − ( ∇pt − qd ) = − , (2)
ρc Zi
1 1 ∂pt
− n · − ( ∇pt − qd ) = . (3)
ρc Zi ∂t
4
O. Khrystoslavenko, R. Grubliauskas. Simulation of room acoustics using Comsol Multiphysics
5
O. Khrystoslavenko, R. Grubliauskas. Simulation of room acoustics using Comsol Multiphysics
conditions of the surrounding scene with a noise source, peratures based on comsol multiphysics, in 21st Interna-
tional Congress on Sound and Vibration (ICSV21), Bei-
as well as solves problems with the measurement of an jing, China, 13–17 July 2014.
acoustic wave. The Roomsim program is a free, open- Rindel, J. H. 2002. Modelling in auditorium acoustics. From rip-
source educational tool for educators and students in audio ple tank and scale models to computer simulations, Revista
de Acústica 33(3–4): 31–35.
signal processing, music technology, auditory perception,
Rindel, J. H. 2010. Room acoustic prediction modelling, in Proc.
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cessing. vador, Brazil, 1–12.
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in 13th Annual Conference Proceedings of Technical Com-
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In the current research, a room with different sound Sakagami, K.; Morimoto, M.; Koike, W. 2006. A numerical
frequencies from 100 to 5000 Hz was simulated. The re- study of double-leaf microperforated panel absorbers,
Applied acoustics 67(7): 609–619.
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