ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the reader is introduced to:
wall-cavity modal coupling, when it is important and when it can be ignored;
the simplifying assumption of locally reactive walls;
three kinds of rooms: Sabine rooms, flat rooms and long rooms;
Sabine and statistical absorption coefficients;
low-frequency modal description of room response;
high-frequency statistical description of room response;
transient response of Sabine rooms and reverberation decay;
reverberation time calculations;
the room constant and its determination;
porous and panel sound absorbers;
applications of sound absorption; and
basic auditorium design.
