Some observations on the behavior of the method of fundamental solutions in 3D acoustic problems

摘要

The benchmark problem of room acoustics, consisting on the determination of the three-dimensional (3D) sound field generated by a point source placed within a closed acoustic space is here addressed by means of the Method of Fundamental Solutions (MFS). The focus of this paper is on the behavior of a MFS numerical frequency domain approach with regards to stability, accuracy, and efficiency. Strategies of improving stability and accuracy of the method such as the use of different distributions of collocation points and virtual sources or an singular value decomposition (SVD) solver are also analyzed. It has been found that these strategies allowed increasing accuracy and attaining stability. Comparison with a classical BEM model was also performed, and has shown that the MFS can reach excellent accuracy making use of smaller-sized equation systems.