Archives of Acoustics, 49, 4, pp. 543–556, 2024
10.24425/aoa.2024.148811

Combined Evaluation of Room Acoustic Descriptors in Different Structural Configurations via ODEON Simulations and Artificial Neural Networks

Eriberto Oliveira DO NASCIMENTO
Laboratory of Environmental and Industrial Acoustics and Acoustic Comfort Federal University of Paraná – UFPR
Brazil

Paulo Henrique Trombetta ZANNIN
https://scholar.google.com.br/citations?user=TpOYZKAAAAAJ&hl=en
Laboratory of Environmental and Industrial Acoustics and Acoustic Comfort Federal University of Paraná – UFPR
Brazil

This study evaluated the combined sensitivity analysis of several room acoustic descriptors: reverberation time (T30), center time (Ts), early decay time (EDT), definition (D50), clarity (C50), useful-to-detrimental sound ratio (U50), and speech transmission index (STI); and also it assessed how these descriptors responded jointly to different acoustic-structural factors. The first-order factors were background noise (A), acoustic ceiling tile sound absorption coefficient (B), confinement (C), and occupancy (D), along with their interaction effects. A novel method is proposed for this joint evaluation of sensitivity factors. This method involves in situ measurements and an unreplicated 2^4 factorial design, which has been validated by ODEON software. The significance of input factors is determined using artificial neural networks (ANN) and the modified profile method (MPM), validated by multiple linear regression (MLR). Three significant correlation groups are identified
at p < 0:05: group 1 (EDT, T30, Ts), group 2 (C50, D50), and group 3 (U50, STI). The ceiling material sound absorption (B) is found to affect reverberation (groups 1 and 2), while background noise (A) impacts STI and U50. A weak correlation is found between D50 and STI. These results are confirmed by the MLR and MPM methods.
Keywords: speech transmission index; reverberation time; artificial neural networks; room acoustics; ODEON simulation
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Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International CC BY 4.0.

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DOI: 10.24425/aoa.2024.148811