Computer Aided Design for Room Acoustics

Design for optimal acoustics performance of rooms can be considered one of the most important design stages that must not be ignored at the beginning of the design process of any speech, general or music room. Hence, cooperation must exist between architecture and acoustics engineers from the beginning of the design process to achieve the optimal acoustical design of the room. This may decrease the total cost of the project; because there is no need for additional cost for acoustical treatment of the room. In the present work, a detailed study of the important acoustical parameters that affect the optimal acoustics performance of rooms is presented. Also, discussion of different factors that affect reverberation time values at the octave band of frequencies was presented. Studying the optimum reverberation time for different room usages has been illustrated and discussed, a method to find the optimal reverberation time curves for different room usages is developed. Study for different types of sound absorption materials was carried out. Methods of acoustics measurements for both reverberation time and sound absorption coefficient were illustrated.