Archive 'Absorption'

The hall's structure itself as well as its covering, have an essential role in defining the environment's acoustics. The principles we mentioned when we looked at tight environments using absorbing and reflecting materials (the showy draperies hanging in 18th century halls are absolutely essential for acoustics) to diffuse sound, are also applicable in this case. The absorption on behalf of spectators is a separate matter.

This kind of panel is made from porous materials. This way the particles that transport the sound enter the material through the pores and are imprisoned as such inside the material, thus effectively interrupting the acoustic wave's path.

The absorption coefficient of a material indicates the relationship between the absorbed and the received acoustic energy. So, when the coefficient is 1, it means that the absorbed energy is equal to the received energy, or, in other words, that all the received energy has been absorbed.

The most common type of space for us to picture is a room. A room of fixed, unchanging dimensions. Let's start to have a look at its acoustic characteristics. Depending on the material the walls are made of we will have more or less absorption and reflection of acoustic energy.

In this section we'll be taking a look at the way sound behaves when it interacts with obstacles that find themselves upon its path. Generally speaking the material the obstacle is made of and its dimensions make a difference with regards to the actual nature of the interaction that occurs as much as the sound frequency contents we're looking at does.