A transparency model and its applications for simulation of reflector arrays and sound transmission (A)

The paper describes a new method for simulating the frequency-dependent reflection and transmission of reflector arrays, and the frequency-dependent airborne sound insulation between rooms by means of a room acoustic computer model. The method makes use of a transparency method in the ray-tracing process. In the first step of the calculation the rays hitting the relevant surfaces may either be reflected or transmitted, using a probability of 50%. In the next step the impulse responses in the receiver positions are calculated using a frequency-dependent correction to account for the reflected or transmitted energy. The method applied for the reflector array is based on a theoretical model that takes into account the dimensions of the reflecting surface, path lengths, and angle of incidence. The transmission calculation is based on the users' data for the frequency-dependent transmission loss of the partition, and this is useful for the auralization of sound transmission through different building constructions. The acoustic properties like volume, reverberation time, and the area of the transmitting surfaces are included in the simulation.