A study of various barriers in enclosed sound field by using the computer program - SOFIS

In the study of the behaviors of barriers in an enclosed field, one should take into account such phenomena as sound energy reflection, absorption, scattering and diffraction. Therefore, the study is much more difficult than that in free field. In this paper, sound barriers are classified into four kinds according to their size, number and shape. Each kind of barriers is modelled by a corresponding method based on a computer program-SOFIS. The program combines the ray-tracing technique and statistical method. The impulse response and some acoustical parameters such as sound pressure level at different positions can be calculated by the program, no matter there are a certain kind of barriers in the field or the field is empty. The ray-tracing program and the algorithms for various barriers are validated by the comparison between measurement and prediction of the reverberation room and the anechoic room of the Northwestern Polytechnic University.