3D sound scattering by rigid barriers in the vicinity of tall buildings

The boundary element method (BEM) is used to evaluate the acoustic scattering of a three-dimensional (3D) sound source by an infinitely long rigid barrier in the vicinity of tall buildings. The barrier is assumed to be non-absorbing and the buildings are modeled as an infinite barrier. The calculations are performed in the frequency domain and time signatures are obtained by means of inverse Fourier transforms. The 3D solution is obtained by means of Fourier transform in the direction in which the geometry does not vary. This requires solving a series of 2D problems with different spatial wavenumbers, kz. The wavenumber transform in discrete form is obtained by considering an infinite number of virtual point sources equally spaced along the z axis. Complex frequencies are used to minimize the influence of these neighboring fictitious sources. Different geometric models, with barriers of varying sizes, are used. The reduction of sound pressure in the vicinity of the buildings is evaluated and the creation of shadow zones by the barriers is analyzed and compared with results provided by a simplified method.