Study of acoustic resonance in enclosures using eigenanalysis based on boundary element methods

Abstract

It is well known that, from the modal theory of room acoustics, resonance will occur if the driving frequency of a sound source located in a room coincides with one of the natural frequencies of the sound field. In this study, an eigenanalysis technique based on the boundary element method (BEM) is developed for extracting eigenmodes of a sound field in an enclosure. A method of singular value search, in conjunction with a golden section optimization algorithm, is utilized for efficient calculation of eigenmodes. In particular, modes associated with repeated eigenvalues can be well resolved by the technique developed in this research. Enclosures of various geometries have been analyzed by using the developed algorithm in a numerical simulation. Satisfactory agreement has been achieved between the BEM results, the FEM results, and the analytical solutions if available.