Incorporating source directivity in wave-based virtual acoustics: Time-domain models and fitting to measured data

The modeling of source directivity is a problem of longstanding interest in virtual acoustics and auralisation. This remains the case for newer time domain volumetric wave-based approaches to simulation such as the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. In this article, a spatio-temporal model of acoustic wave propagation, including a source term is presented. The source is modeled as a spatial Dirac delta function under the action of a series of differential operators associated with the spherical harmonic functions. Each term in the series gives rise to the directivity pattern of a given spherical harmonic, and is separately driven through a time domain filtering operation of an underlying source signal. Such a model is suitable for calibration against measured frequency-dependent directivity patterns and a procedure for arriving at time domain filters for each spherical harmonic channel is illustrated. It also yields a convenient framework for discretisation, and a simple strategy is presented, yielding a locally-defined operation over the spatial grid. Numerical results, illustrating various features of source directivity, including the comparison of measured and synthetic directivity patterns are presented.