An assessment of the performance of impedance tube method

The impedance tube method is widely used for measuring sound absorption (or reflection) coefficients of acoustic materials as a function of frequency. However, the sound absorption coefficients obtained using the impedance tube method may have some variations due to the dimensions (limits) of an impedance tube, sample preparation and sample mounting. This paper assesses the performance of the two-microphone impedance tube method as a function of frequency for different tube dimensions and materials and presents suggestions for increasing the reliability and repeatability of impedance tube measurements. First, after summarizing a systematic way for measuring acoustic transfer functions, sound absorption coefficients of a variety of materials ranging from conventional absorbing acoustic materials to samples with thin films are measured using two tubes with different tube diameter and microphone spacing. Uncertainty of sound absorption coefficients for various materials is discussed, and the frequency limits of impedance tubes are assessed. Then, a method for minimizing uncertainty due to sample mounting is proposed and the main findings are discussed.