Hall Preliminary Design Stage
A Dissertation
Presented to
The Academy Faculty
by
Yan Zhang
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in the
College of Architecture
Georgia Institute of Technology
December, 2005
A Method to Predict Reverberation Time in Concert
Hall Preliminary Design Stage
Approved by:
Godfried Augenbroe, Advisor
Dr. Yves Berthelot
College of Architecture
School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
R. Lawrence Kirkegaard
Dr. Brani Vidakovic
President, Principal Acoustician
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Kirkegaard Associates
Georgia Institute of Technology
College of Architecture
School of Architecture
Georgia Institute of Technology
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Date Approved: August, 12, 2005
Dr. Ruchi Choudhary
Dr. Ning Xiang
Dedicated to the intellectual curiosity
that keeps me motivated and entertained
Acknowledgements
It has been four years since I stepped out of the plane and was confused about
everything in this different country. Thanks to the PhD program, advisors, mentors and
friends, my journey has been rich and rewarding.
My thesis advisor, Fried Augenbroe, had the most significant impact on my
academic path. He led me into many exciting fields, taught me to be patient and critical
about my own work, and encouraged me to go for my dream. He picked sensible sparkles
in my wild thoughts, supplied them with firework, and let them glow. I am thankful for
his support, ranging from help in funding to taking care of my important form when I
predictably forgot. His perfect balance of intelligence, wisdom, and sense of humor make
him a great advisor and a fun friend.
I also benefit from other mentors and friends in our program. I enjoyed the
intellectual depth of morphology and exercised to be both analytical and creative in John
Peponis’ classes. His insights about design and space, delivered with wit and rigor, are
always very inspiring for me. Through Chuck Eastman’s classes I developed
understandings in data model, which had implicit but natural influence in my work. His
concise comments always lead me to intellectual contemplation, and motivate me to do
better work. Through Doctor Seminar by Craig Zimring I was encouraged to think like an
independent researcher. I enjoyed keen comments from Sonit Bafna all the time. I
appreciate Ruchi’s interest in my work, time to correct my grammars, writing suggestions
and her hard working attitude. I thank Chuck as the director of our PhD program for
providing the great academic environment, and what I learned here will be always with
me in the future.
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Having my dissertation blessed by Larry Kirkegaard is one of the most important
highlights in my PhD journey. Larry’s sharp, insightful yet warm comments helped me to
improve my dissertation and shape my future research direction. After my defense Larry
offered me opportunity to attend a unique “Hard Hat” tuning concert in Omaha
Performance Center. I had chance to observe many backstage tuning activities, and more
importantly, enjoyed even the softest touch and twist of the sound carried by the rich
acoustics of the auditorium in its informal debut. The aural feast was truly enjoyable. I
thank Rogene and Larry for the warm, pleasant and encouraging conversations. I am
grateful for Scott Pfeiffer, Jake Ament, Zackery Belanger, Molly Norris, Tim Gulsrud
and other crews in Kirkegaard associates for being helpful and friendly. I also appreciate
the help from Lily Wang and Rebecca when I toured University of Nebraska Lincoln for
the scale model of the Omaha Performance Center.
I thank Ning Xiang, director of Architectural Acoustics in Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute, for taking time to travel to Atlanta right after a busy conference in Brazil. His
encouraging comments further boost my confidence, and his suggestions on relevant
literature readings helped me to better understand specific topics.
This work might have not been possible without the excellent faculty resource in
Georgia Tech in other disciplines. In Spring, 2001, I took a great class with Prof. Brani
Vidakovic and had chance to further work with him on wavelet encryption and image
processing. I was fascinated by the orthogonal decomposition idea, and was driven to
take quite a few great classes. With Brani and other mathematicians as tour guides, my
intellectual journey in this wonderland was marvelous. I also owe Brani gratefulness for
the application of Bayesian method in this dissertation.
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