The Risk of Ignoring the Uncertainty of Biot Parameters Measurements and their Impact on Simulation Models Accuracy

It is well known today that Biot parameters are the intrinsic material properties of porous media such as foams and fibers. They are to porous media what Young’s modulus is to steel panels. Once these Biot parameters are accurately known, one can trust that a predictive simulation model will yield the corresponding level of accuracy. But how accurate must these Biot parameters be to warrant a safe level of accuracy of the resulting simulation models? This paper analyzes various round-robin tests publications related to measurements of Biot parameters (acoustic and elastic) and uses the reproducibility of measured data from the numerous laboratories involved to evaluate the effect of the observed measured variability on simulation models accuracy when predicting transmission loss, surface absorption and actual sound pressure level (SPL) response inside a vehicle.