acousticMaterialCatalog

R2026b

Acoustic absorption coefficients of room surface materials

Since R2026b

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    Syntax

    catalog = acousticMaterialCatalog
    catalog = acousticMaterialCatalog(Name=Value)

    Description

    Add-On Required: This feature requires the Room Acoustics Simulation add-on.

    catalog = acousticMaterialCatalog returns the full catalog of room surface materials and associated acoustic absorption coefficients.

    example

    catalog = acousticMaterialCatalog(Name=Value) specifies options using one or more name-value arguments.

    example

    Examples

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    This example uses:

    Open Live Script

    Use the acousticMaterialCatalog function to view acoustic absorption coefficients for common room material types. 

    catalog = acousticMaterialCatalog
    catalog = 99×4 table
          Material                        Description                                     AbsorptionCoefficients                        Category  
    ____________________    ________________________________________    ___________________________________________________________    ___________

                                                                        125 Hz    250 Hz    500 Hz    1000 Hz    2000 Hz    4000 Hz               
                                                                        ______    ______    ______    _______    _______    _______               
                                                                                                                                                  
    "Hairfelt"              "Hair felt, 2.5 cm"                          0.18      0.36      0.71      0.79       0.82       0.85      "Absorbers"
    "Woolfelt"              "Wool felt, 2.5 cm"                          0.09      0.34      0.55      0.66       0.52       0.39      "Absorbers"
    "MineralWool"           "Mineral wool, 15 cm"                        0.47      0.53       0.6      0.62       0.58       0.56      "Absorbers"
    "GlassWool9cm"          "Glass wool, 9 cm"                           0.32       0.4      0.51       0.6       0.65        0.6      "Absorbers"
    "GlassWool3cm"          "Glass wool, 3 cm"                            0.1      0.15      0.45      0.55        0.6        0.6      "Absorbers"
    "GlassFoam"             "Glass foam with unenclosed pores"            0.1      0.36      0.38      0.36       0.45       0.55      "Absorbers"
    "AcousticPlaster"       "Acoustic plaster"                            0.3      0.35       0.5       0.7        0.7        0.7      "Absorbers"
    "AcousticalTile"        "Acoustical tile, 1/2 inch thick"            0.07      0.21      0.66      0.75       0.62       0.49      "Absorbers"
    "Woodfiber25mm"         "Woodfiber tiles, 25 mm, tight to wall"      0.47      0.52       0.5      0.55       0.58       0.63      "Absorbers"
    "Woodfiber12mmTight"    "Woodfiber tiles, 12 mm, tight to wall"      0.06      0.15      0.28       0.3       0.33       0.31      "Absorbers"
    "Woodfiber12mm3cm"      "Woodfiber tiles, 12 mm, 3 cm from wall"     0.14      0.25      0.29      0.31       0.41       0.42      "Absorbers"
    "Woodfiber12mm5cm"      "Woodfiber tiles, 12 mm, 5 cm from wall"     0.22       0.3      0.34      0.32       0.41       0.42      "Absorbers"
    "Fiberglass"            "Fiberglass, 25 mm, rigid backing"           0.08      0.25      0.45      0.75       0.75       0.65      "Absorbers"
    "Melamine"              "Melamine based foam, 25 mm"                 0.09      0.22      0.54      0.76       0.88       0.93      "Absorbers"
    "RockWool"              "Rock wool, 30 mm"                            0.1       0.4       0.8       0.9        0.9        0.9      "Absorbers"
    "FiberglassBitumen"     "Fiberglass bitumen-bonded mat"               0.3      0.55       0.8      0.85       0.75        0.8      "Absorbers"
      ⋮

    Restrict table values to materials classified as diffusers using the Category name-value argument.

    subCatalog = acousticMaterialCatalog(Category="Diffusers")
    subCatalog = 5×4 table
           Material                                          Description                                                     AbsorptionCoefficients                        Category  
    ______________________    _________________________________________________________________________    ___________________________________________________________    ___________

                                                                                                           125 Hz    250 Hz    500 Hz    1000 Hz    2000 Hz    4000 Hz               
                                                                                                           ______    ______    ______    _______    _______    _______               
                                                                                                                                                                                     
    "PlywoodPanel38"          "Plywood panel, 3/8-inch thick"                                               0.28      0.22      0.17      0.09        0.1       0.11      "Diffusers"
    "PolycylindricalChord"    "Polycylindrical chord, height 10 inches, filled"                             0.35       0.5      0.38       0.3       0.22       0.18      "Diffusers"
    "BAD"                     "Hybrid absorber and diffuser (BADTM panel) mounted on 2.5 cm fiberglass"     0.17       0.4      0.86         1       0.84       0.61      "Diffusers"
    "QRD2D"                   "2D N=7 QRD, design frequency=500 Hz"                                         0.14      0.12      0.14       0.2       0.09       0.12      "Diffusers"
    "QRD1D"                   "1D N=7 QRD, design frequency=500 Hz"                                         0.11       0.1      0.07      0.08       0.06       0.06      "Diffusers"

    Synthesize the impulse response of a room using the acousticRoomResponse function. Specify the material absorption using the material ID for 3/8-inch thick plywood panels.

    roomDimensions = [5, 4, 6];
rx = [2, 3.5, 2];
tx = [2, 1.5, 2];
ir = acousticRoomResponse(roomDimensions,tx,rx,MaterialAbsorption="PlywoodPanel38");

    This example uses:

    Open Live Script

    Absorption coefficients from acousticMaterialCatalog can be used to improve impulse response synthesis using the acousticRoomResponse function.

    Get absorption coefficients for a slate floor and a dry plaster tiled ceiling. Use the default band center frequencies of acousticRoomResponse.

    bandCenters = [125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000];
floorEntry = acousticMaterialCatalog(Material="Slate",...
    BandCenterFrequencies=bandCenters);
ceilEntry = acousticMaterialCatalog(Material="DryPlasterTiles",...
    BandCenterFrequencies=bandCenters);

    acousticMaterialCatalog has entries for glass wool acoustic panels with a thickness of 3 cm or 9 cm. Estimate the absorption coefficients of glass wool with a thickness of 6 cm as the mean of these entries.

    glassWool3cm = acousticMaterialCatalog(Material="GlassWool3cm",...
    BandCenterFrequencies=bandCenters);
glassWool9cm = acousticMaterialCatalog(Material="GlassWool9cm",...
    BandCenterFrequencies=bandCenters);
coefs6cm = 0.5*table2array(glassWool3cm.AbsorptionCoefficients + glassWool9cm.AbsorptionCoefficients);

    Synthesize a room impulse response using the absorption coefficients.

    roomDimensions = [5, 4, 6];
rx = [2, 3.5, 2];
tx = [2, 1.5, 2];
absorptionCoefs = [table2array(floorEntry.AbsorptionCoefficients);...% floor
                   coefs6cm; coefs6cm; coefs6cm; coefs6cm;...% walls
                   table2array(ceilEntry.AbsorptionCoefficients)...% ceiling
    ];
ir = acousticRoomResponse(roomDimensions,tx,rx,MaterialAbsorption=absorptionCoefs);

    Plot the impulse response.

    fs = 16e3;
t = (0:numel(ir)-1)/fs;
plot(t,ir)
xlabel("Time (s)")

    Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with xlabel Time (s) contains an object of type line.

    Name-Value Arguments

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    Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

    Example: acousticMaterialCatalog(Category="Floors")

    Material name, specified as a string or vector of strings. By default, the function returns information for all materials. If Material is specified with a value other than "all", the function returns only the rows for the specified materials. Each element of Material must match a material name in the catalog.

    Example: "Woolfelt"

    Dependencies

    Material and Category cannot both be specified.

    Data Types: char | string

    Material category, specified as a string or vector of strings. By default, the function returns information for all categories. If Category is specified as a value other than "all", the function returns only the rows for the specified categories. Each element of Category must match a category name in the catalog.

    Example: "Absorbers"

    Dependencies

    Material and Category cannot both be specified.

    Data Types: char | string

    Center frequencies of absorption coefficients, specified as a vector of positive scalars. By default, absorption coefficients are returned for bands centered at 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz. If other band centers are specified, the function interpolates and extrapolates absorption coefficients from the values at the default band centers.

    Example: [200 400 800 1600 3200]

    Data Types: single | double

    Output Arguments

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    Catalog information, returned as a table. The table has four columns:

    Catalog table values

    Column nameValue
    MaterialMaterial names, returned as a vector of strings.
    DescriptionShort descriptions of the materials, returned as a vector of strings.
    AbsorptionCoefficientsAbsorption coefficients for the materials, returned as a table. The number of columns matches the length of BandCenterFrequencies.
    CategoryCategory of each material, returned as a vector of strings.

    Version History

    Introduced in R2026b

    See Also

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