Effect of curvature on sound propagation in the ear canal.

In this paper, we investigate the effect of the curvature and torsion of the ear canal on its resonance through a comparison between several ear canal models. Utilizing Stinson's ear canal geometries as a reference, we build and analyze several ear canal models using both transmission matrix and numerical methods for the purpose of comparative assessment. A conical transmission unit, which considers visco-thermal effects, is employed for the modeling of the human ear canal. While the transfer matrix and numerical method agree well for a straight axis model, this simplification results in up to 20% deviation from a curved canal. We propose the curve twist ratio as a metric to quantify the influence of curvature on the ear canal and find that our proposed metric can effectively express the error introduced by the simplified straight axis model. Upon this metric, an empirical equation is proposed for incorporating the curvature effect in the transmission matrix method, enabling it to generate comparable results to those of the numerical method, which considers the effect of the curvature and torsion, thus dramatically accelerating computation.

In situ measurements of the oblique incidence sound absorption coefficient for finite sized absorbers.

Absorption coefficients are mostly measured in reverberation rooms or with impedance tubes. Since these methods are only suitable for measuring the random incidence and the normal incidence absorption coefficient, there exists an increasing need for absorption coefficient measurement of finite absorbers at oblique incidence in situ. Due to the edge diffraction effect, oblique incidence methods considering an infinite sample fail to measure the absorption coefficient at large incidence angles of finite samples. This paper aims for the development of a measurement method that accounts for the finiteness of the absorber. A sound field model, which accounts for scattering from the finite absorber edges, assuming plane wave incidence is derived. A significant influence of the finiteness on the radiation impedance and the corresponding absorption coefficient is found. A finite surface method, which combines microphone array measurements over a finite sample with the sound field model in an inverse manner, is proposed. Besides, a temporal subtraction method, a microphone array method, impedance tube measurements, and an equivalent fluid model are used for validation. The finite surface method gives promising agreement with theory, especially at near grazing incidence. Thus, the finite surface method is proposed for further measurements at large incidence angles.

Deconvolution for the localization of sound sources using a circular microphone array.

During the last decade, the aeroacoustic community has examined various methods based on deconvolution to improve the visualization of acoustic fields scanned with planar sparse arrays of microphones. These methods assume that the beamforming map in an observation plane can be approximated by a convolution of the distribution of the actual sources and the beamformer's point-spread function, defined as the beamformer's response to a point source. By deconvolving the resulting map, the resolution is improved, and the side-lobes effect is reduced or even eliminated compared to conventional beamforming. Even though these methods were originally designed for planar sparse arrays, in the present study, they are adapted to uniform circular arrays for mapping the sound over 360°. This geometry has the advantage that the beamforming output is practically independent of the focusing direction, meaning that the beamformer's point-spread function is shift-invariant. This makes it possible to apply computationally efficient deconvolution algorithms that consist of spectral procedures in the entire region of interest, such as the deconvolution approach for the mapping of the acoustic sources 2, the Fourier-based non-negative least squares, and the Richardson-Lucy. This investigation examines the matter with computer simulations and measurements.

Beamforming with a circular array of microphones mounted on a rigid sphere (L).

Beamforming with uniform circular microphone arrays can be used for localizing sound sources over 360°. Typically, the array microphones are suspended in free space or they are mounted on a solid cylinder. However, the cylinder is often considered to be infinitely long because the scattering problem has no exact solution for a finite cylinder. Alternatively one can use a solid sphere. This investigation compares the performance of a circular array mounded on a rigid sphere with that of such an array in free space and mounted on an infinite cylinder, using computer simulations. The examined techniques are delay-and-sum and circular harmonics beamforming, and the results are validated experimentally.

Beamforming with a circular microphone array for localization of environmental noise sources.

It is often enough to localize environmental sources of noise from different directions in a plane. This can be accomplished with a circular microphone array, which can be designed to have practically the same resolution over 360°. The microphones can be suspended in free space or they can be mounted on a solid cylinder. This investigation examines and compares two techniques based on such arrays, the classical delay-and-sum beamforming and an alternative method called circular harmonics beamforming. The latter is based on decomposing the sound field into a series of circular harmonics. The performance of the two signal processing techniques is examined using computer simulations, and the results are validated experimentally.