Singular Vectors in Acoustic Simulation Tests of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Bochnia

Abstract

A new approach to acoustic quality assessment of churches during simulation tests is proposed in the article. The numerical global index, based on four partial indices: reverberation, speech intelligibility, music sound index and a proposed new one – sound strength index, assesses the acoustic parameters of the model of the tested church in a complex manner. The global single number index was obtained from 17 simulations of acoustic adaptation options of the investigated church’s interior. The equation of the approximate global index has been obtained by means of singular vectors, obtained from Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) of the Index Observation Matrix of Simulation Variants (IOMSV). The weights of four partial indices and a universal equation of the global index have been calculated using the SVD technique to solve the problem of correlated acoustical parameters. The global index may be a helpful tool during simulation tests of acoustic quality assessment of churches. The proposed final equation of the global index does not require knowledge of the SVD technique and the values of acoustic parameters preferred for churches. Therefore the methodology proposed is easily applicable.