Improving speech intelligibility in classrooms through the mirror image model

Optimal classroom acoustical design can directly enhance students’ learning efficiency. Effective acoustical designs are important and necessary to achieve a high degree of speech intelligibility for listeners. A speech intelligibility metric, U50, at different receiver positions in a classroom of 10 m × 8 m × 6 m was obtained by numerical simulations based on the mirror image model, with and without the uniform surface absorption coefficient. Comparisons show that increasing the absorption coefficient at the back wall can increase the speech intelligibility metric U50 to the largest extent in the classroom. A numerical case study was then conducted in a typical classroom of 10 m × 10 m × 3.5 m, and the speech intelligibility was assessed through a third-order polynomial of Wonyoung and Murray [Wonyoung Y, Murray H. Auralization study of optimal reverberation times for speech intelligibility for normal and hearing-impaired listeners in classrooms with diffuse sound field. J Acoust Soc Am 2006;120(2):801–7].