Effect of Diffuser Locations on the Room Acoustical Parameters in 1:25 Scale Model Hall

Abstract

This paper investigates the effects of diffuser on the acoustical parameters in music hall with consideration of the result of scattering coefficient measurement. A scale model hall of 600 seats with orchestra shell was used for experiments. The materials of 1:50 scale model was chosen through absorption coefficient measurement based on ISO 354. The model was matched to the computer simulation model in terms of reverberation time. In order to evaluate the effect of diffuser location, the measurements were accomplished with and without diffusers according to 7 configurations by diffuser-installed region; sidewall, balcony front, ceiling and so on. The following acoustical parameters were extracted from each measurement case; Reverberation time (RT), Early decay time (EDT), Clarity (C80), Center time (Ts), Sound strength (G) and Temporal diffusion (TD) from the auto-correlation function (ACF) of impulse responses. As a result, the absorption power and diffusion power were increased with number of diffusers. Accordingly RT, EDT and G were decreased by diffuser and the redirection of reflections was occurred briskly. Averaged TD was 6.05 to 6.30 by measurement cases. RT was found to be the most related factor to diffusion power (R = 0.94). The correlation between TD and EDT was high (R = 0.73). In addition, the effects of diffuser-installed location were discussed in terms of acoustical parameter variation.