Investigation of damping effects on low-frequency steady-state acoustical behaviour of coupled spaces

In the low-frequency range, the acoustical behaviour of enclosed spaces is strongly influenced by excited acoustic modes resulting in a spatial irregularity of a steady-state sound field. In the paper, this problem has been examined theoretically and numerically for a system of coupled spaces with complex-valued conditions on boundary surfaces. Using a modal expansion method, an analytic formula for Green’s function was derived allowing to predict the interior sound field for a pure-tone excitation. To quantify the spatial irregularity of steady-state sound field, the parameter referred to as the mean spatial deviation was introduced. A numerical simulation was carried out for the system consisting of two coupled rectangular subspaces. Eigenfunctions and eigenfrequencies for this system were determined using the high-accuracy eigenvalue solver. As was evidenced by computational data, for small sound damping on absorptive walls the mean spatial deviation peaks at frequencies corresponding to eigenfrequencies of strongly localized modes. However, if the sound damping is much higher, the main cause of spatial irregularity of the interior sound field is the appearance of sharp valleys in a spatial distribution of a sound pressure level.