Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Adapting Taylor Dispersion to Measure the Dispersion Coefficient of Electrolyte Solutions via an Accessible Microfluidic Setup
Published on: October 7, 2025
Audibility of dispersion error in room acoustic finite-difference time-domain simulation as a function of simulation
Jukka Saarelma1, Jonathan Botts1, Brian Hamilton1
1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Aalto University School of Science, Espoo, Finland.
Abstract:
Finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation has been a popular area of research in room acoustics due to its capability to simulate wave phenomena in a wide bandwidth directly in the time-domain. A downside of the method is that it introduces a direction and frequency dependent error to the simulated sound field due to the non-linear dispersion relation of the discrete system. In this study, the perceptual threshold of the dispersion error is measured in three-dimensional FDTD schemes as a function of simulation distance. Dispersion error is evaluated for three different explicit, non-staggered FDTD schemes using the numerical wavenumber in the direction of the worst-case error of each scheme. It is found that the thresholds for the different schemes do not vary significantly when the phase velocity error level is fixed. The thresholds are found to vary significantly between the different sound samples. The measured threshold for the audibility of dispersion error at the probability level of 82% correct discrimination for three-alternative forced choice is found to be 9.1 m of propagation in a free field, that leads to a maximum group delay error of 1.8 ms at 20 kHz with the chosen phase velocity error level of 2%.
Related Concept Videos
Echo
Imagine the sound is reflected back to the ears. Assuming that the source is very close to the human, the difference between hearing the two sounds—the emitted sound and the reflected sound—may be more than the minimum time for perceiving distinct sounds. If this is the case,...
Interference: Path Lengths
Two special sources may be considered when they are in phase. This can be easily achieved by feeding the two sources from the same source. An example would be synchronizing the two speakers by feeding them with the same source, such as the sound waves produced by a tuning fork. This setup ensures that the two sources have the same frequency and are...
Influence of Earth's Curvature and Atmospheric Refraction on Leveling
Electronic Distance Measuring Instruments
Deriving the Speed of Sound in a Liquid
The speed of sound in fluids can be derived by considering a mechanical wave...
Distance Corrections

