Sound source identification using coherence- and intensity-based methods

Very often in environmental and industrial acoustics, it is necessary to identify the contribution of single sources to global sound levels. Under this perspective, interests arise from the necessity of controlling noise or verifying whether a single source exceeds legal limits while there are other active sources around. Currently available methods are typically based on coherence or expert system techniques. Both approaches have relevant limitations, but for current purposes, coherence methods are usually more robust, particularly if carried out using vibration sensors in vibroacoustic interactions. Nevertheless, when a measurement system has to be based only on microphone measurements, those methods also have too little reliability and unsatisfying accuracy. In fact, it is quite impossible to eliminate in the input signals the effects of other sources, which usually also have some coherence with the output signal. In this paper, a relevant enhancement to coherence-based methods is described and discussed. The proposed approach leverages on the use of an acoustic intensity measurement approach instead of the sound pressure one. Method advantages and limitations are addressed with a theoretical approach; method performances are experimentally verified. © 2007 IEEE.