This test method covers the use of an impedance tube, two microphone locations and a frequency analysis system for the determination of the sound absorption coefficient of sound absorbing materials for normal incidence sound incidence. It can also be applied for the determination of the acoustical surface impedance or surface admittance of sound absorbing materials. As an extension, it can also be used to assess intrinsic properties of homogeneous acoustical materials such as their characteristic impedance, characteristic wavenumber, dynamic mass density and dynamic bulk modulus.

The test method is similar to the test method specified in ISO 10534-1 in that it uses an impedance tube with a sound source connected to one end and the test sample mounted in the tube at the other end. However, the measurement technique is different. In this test method, plane waves are generated in a tube by a sound source, and the decomposition of the interference field is achieved by the measurement of acoustic pressures at two fixed locations using wall-mounted microphones or an in-tube traversing microphone, and subsequent calculation of the complex acoustic transfer function and quantities reported in the previous paragraph. The test method is intended to provide an alternative, and generally much faster, measurement technique than that of ISO 10534-1.

Normal incidence absorption coefficients coming from impedance tube measurements are not comparable with random incidence absorption coefficients measured in reverberation rooms according to ISO 354. The reverberation room method will (under ideal conditions) determine the sound absorption coefficient for diffuse sound incidence. However, the reverberation room method requires test specimens which are rather large. The impedance tube method is limited to studies at normal and plane incidence and requires samples of the test object which are of the same size as the cross-section of the impedance tube. For materials that are locally reacting only, diffuse incidence sound absorption coefficients can be estimated from measurement results obtained by the impedance tube method (see Annex E).