Estimation of the surface impedance based on the discrete complex image source method and array processing

This paper introduces a method for estimating the sound absorption coefficient of a large panel of absorbing material from measurements using a microphone array. The method relies upon describing the pressure field as the set of monopoles obtained when the reflection coefficient is represented as the Laplace Transform of an image source distribution. This formulation results in a well-behaved integral equation, which is discretized using Gaussian quadrature to yield an inverse problem. It is possible to determine the regularized solution to the inverse problem and reconstruct the surface impedance of the sample by conducting measurements of the sound pressure at multiple points of observation. This sound field representation is adequate for sound sources in the close range of the material and the array. The paper presents simulated and experimental investigations to delineate the efficacy of the proposed measurement technique against the well-known image source method, thereby highlighting its significant potential to advance acoustic characterization methodologies.