초록
One of the widely accepted methods for evaluating the interior sound quality of automobiles is Articulation Index(AI). The AI actually measures the articulation level of the sound in the vehicle cabin as passengers talk to one another. In this study, the effect of two different absorption materials inside the cabin on AI has been investigated by ray-tracing method : one is firewall, the other is celling. It turns out that the back seat location is found to be strongly dependent on the type of absorption materials treated at the celling, since the sound absorbing area is different due to the location and the firewall is situated in the "Reverberation Radius". The proposed methdo could be used to improve the sound quality of automobiles at the design stge.sign stge.