Pachyderm Acoustic

185 members

Description

Pachyderm is a plugin largely used by Designers and Scientists alike to simulate acoustics in buildings, rooms, cities, and other settings.

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Absorption designer

by Catherine Granada

Oct 12, 2023

Hello everyone. I am trying to get the absorption coefficient of an element with the "Call absorption designer" in PachyDerm_Acoustic - Pachyderm Hybrid Models. When I set a Porous material + Solid plate or Perforated material it gives me a result about the absorption level in all frequencies; but when I set just the Solid plate or the Perforated material by itself it gives me no result in the absorption chart.

I would like to know if that result is possible or am I setting something wrong. 

Thank you in advance. 

  • up

    Arthur van der Harten

    Hi Catherine,

    That result is technically correct. The result of the absorption designer, or the underlying Transfer Matrix Method is 'ideal'. The assumption made is that the bottom layer is an infinitely rigid baffle with infinite impedance, or zero admittance. If you were to apply anything but a porous absorber to that, then the resulting impedance is also infinite.

    The implication is that you took a solid plate, or perforated plate, and glued and screwed it to the infinitely massive layer in the most ideal way possible, so that they move (or not) as one. This is a condition that we acousticians try to get in a concert hall if wood is the specified finish. We then try (sometimes in vain) to get the contractor to fully glue (for 100% of the area) the wood to a masonry or concrete wall, and then screw it down, so it will never move again. The hope is that the wood will not absorb low frequency energy.

    So yes, this is technically correct, but ideal in an unrealistic way. Note also that the ideal Transfer Matrix Method in that case will have no porosity anywhere, which is also not a realistic condition for many kinds of finishes. Sometimes it helps to add just a very thin layer of porous absorption to the top layer. How much, though - that's a judgement call.

    In your pictures, make sure you know where the incident side and rigid backing are. They are labeled.

    Thank you for the very good question.

    Arthur

    Oct 12, 2023