Experimental investigations on sound energy propagation in acoustically coupled volumes using a high-spatial resolution scanning system.

The aim of this work is to study the sound field distribution in an experimental scale-model of two coupled rooms. An automatic scanning mechanism moves a microphone in small grid steps to measure room impulse responses at each grid point. The measurements cover the entire two-dimensional area of the coupled rooms. Sound energy distributions can be analyzed in the form of animated visual displays, revealing sound propagation across the coupling aperture and inside each room. This paper describes the measurement results, and the analysis method, which offer deep insights into the temporal development of a sound field in coupled spaces.