Comparison and application of the experimental methods for multi-layer prediction of acoustical properties of noise control materials in standing wave-duct systems

A comparison among the existing experimental methods used for measuring and predicting acoustical properties, such as absorption ratio and transmission loss, of noise control materials was accomplished in this paper. Four methods for absorption ratio and five methods for transmission loss, which can be generalized as standing wave ratio method, two-cavity method and two-load method, were performed in a special standing wave-duct with two configurations of two- and four-microphone holders and compared with the theoretical expressions in the literature. Conclusions were drawn that the standing wave ratio method with two and four-microphones was more reliable, faster, and easier to use for measuring absorption ratio and transmission loss, respectively. The two-cavity and two- load methods, which may be used to predict acoustical properties of an exceedingly thick sample or a multi-layered treatment consisting of variant materials, have different conditions of using limits. The two-cavity method, especially, can be easily conducted and is suitable for the materials with properties of symmetry and reciprocity. The two-load method, however, is more cumbersome to apply, due to the fact of its complex calibration and measurement procedure. Furthermore, some prediction examples for a set of multi-layered treatments of materials were executed by a newly proposed approach, so-called experimental hybrid multi-layer prediction. In view of applications, the works done in this paper may be directly applied in standing wave-duct systems or other noise control configurations to measure, predict and/or optimize their in situ designs. (C) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.