Interactive Acoustic Simulation in Urban and Complex Environments

Abstract

Report developed under Topic #A11a-T006, contract W911NF-13-C-0037. Outdoor acoustics simulation plays a vital role in several military and commercial applications. State-of-the-art outdoor acoustics prediction methods are restricted, slow, or limited to simple environments. Specifically, no existing method can simultaneously model atmospheric acoustical phenomena, surface interactions due to complex objects, along with dynamic sound sources and listeners. We developed a multi-domain simulation approach that combines efficient non-linear ray tracing with accurate wave solver to model long-range atmospheric effects as well as scattering due to complex objects. Accurate but computationally expensive wave solver models scattering effects near complex objects, while efficient non-linear ray tracer handles far-field interactions. The results from these solvers are combined using a novel two-way coupling based on equivalent source representation. Our technique is compute and memory efficient, requiring at least 100 times less memory and compute time than prior approaches. We validated our technique by comparing simulation results against analytical solutions and measurement data for outdoor scenes. The resulting acoustic simulation system can be used by the Army and DoD for battlefield planning, training, and simulation systems. It can also be used by federal agencies, acoustical consultants, and architects for urban noise modeling and reduction.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 21, 2015
Accession Number
ADA627396

Entities

People

  • Anish Chandak
  • Dinesh Manocha

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustic Phenomena
  • Acoustic Propagation
  • Acoustic Properties
  • Acoustic Waves
  • Acoustics
  • Architectural Acoustics
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Graphics
  • Computer Science
  • Diffraction
  • Reflection
  • Refraction
  • Scattering
  • Three Dimensional
  • Urban Areas
  • Wave Propagation

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Computer Vision.
  • Electromagnetic Wave Scattering and Antenna Radiation Engineering