Transmission loss of variable cross section apertures

Openings in enclosures or walls are frequently the dominant path for sound propagation. In the current work, a transfer matrix method is used to predict the transmission loss of apertures assuming that the cross-sectional dimensions are small compared with an acoustic wavelength. Results are compared with good agreement to an acoustic finite element approach in which the loading on the source side of the finite element model (FEM) is a diffuse acoustic field applied by determining the cross-spectral force matrix of the excitation. The radiation impedance for both the source and termination is determined using a wavelet algorithm. Both approaches can be applied to leaks of any shape and special consideration is given to apertures with varying cross section. Specifically, cones and abrupt area changes are considered, and it is shown that the transmission loss can be increased by greater than 10 dB at many frequencies.