Modeling the Transient Acoustic Field Radiated by a Loudspeaker

The boundary-element method is applied to model the transient acoustic field radiating from a loudspeaker. The finite-element method models the structural behavior of the loudspeaker and provides the necessary boundary data for the acoustic model. The well-known stability problems of time-domain boundary-element methods are avoided by using a Burton-Miller type integral equation. Structural damping and postprocessing are applied to the structural model in order to obtain a realistic response. The convergence of the exterior pressure results as the time step decreases is investigated along with the effect of varying the bandwidth of the applied forcing. The model is verified at different points in the exterior field and two examples of insights from the time domain are shown: the response of the structure to an impulse, and the presence of the acoustic center.