Design and analysis of air acoustic vector-sensor configurations for two-dimensional geometry

Acoustic vector-sensors (AVS) have been designed using the P-P method for different microphone configurations. These configurations have been used to project the acoustic intensity on the orthogonal axes through which the direction of arrival (DoA) of a sound source has been estimated. The analytical expressions for the DoA for different microphone configurations have been derived for two-dimensional geometry. Finite element method simulation using COMSOL-Multiphysics has been performed, where the microphone signals for AVS configurations have been recorded in free field conditions. The performance of all the configurations has been evaluated with respect to angular error and root-mean-square angular error. The simulation results obtained with ideal geometry for different configurations have been corroborated experimentally with prototype AVS realizations and also compared with microphone-array method, viz., Multiple Signal Classification and Generalized Cross Correlation. Experiments have been performed in an anechoic room using different prototype AVS configurations made from small size microphones. The DoA performance using analytical expressions, simulation studies, and experiments with prototype AVS in anechoic chamber are presented in the paper. The square and delta configurations are found to perform better in the absence and presence of noise, respectively. (C) 2016 Acoustical Society of America.