Efficient computation of the sound fields above a layered porous ground.

An efficient computation of sound fields due to a monopole source placed above a porous layer is presented. This paper examines an improved scheme whereby the steepest descent path is selected for the numerical evaluation of the Sommerfeld integral. Along the steepest descent path, a standard Gaussian-Hermite quadrature can be used to calculate the sound fields effectively. The suggested numerical scheme is accurate at all frequencies except in the very near field. The proposed method is more numerically efficient than other computational schemes, especially at long ranges and high source frequencies.