A simplified two-dimensional acoustic diffusion model for predicting sound levels in enclosures

A new concept for the enclosure-acoustic prediction derived from the mathematical theory of diffusion was proposed some years ago [J. Picaut et al., Acustica 1997]. This model has been applied to predict the sound level distribution in rooms of simple geometries with good accuracy and a relatively low calculation time. However, in situations related with (optimal) acoustic design, the need to evaluate multiple simulations may increase the computational cost. The aim of this work is to provide an approximately equivalent two-dimensional diffusion model achieving similar results with a significant reduction of the execution time. The proposed simplified model is obtained by means of the Kantorovich method. Comparisons of numerical simulations performed with the full diffusion model and the software CATT-Acoustic® are presented to show the efficiency of the simplified diffusion model.