Absorption Needed for a Target RT60
The total absorption a room needs to hit a target RT60.
Example
You enter
- Room volume (ft³) 5000
- Target RT60 (s) 0.6
- Existing absorption (sabins, 0 = none) 250
- Sabine coefficient (default 0.049) 0.049
You get
- Total absorption required 408 sabins
- Additional treatment to add 158 sabins
Details, formula, and sources
A_required = 0.049 x volume / RT60_target sabins, plus the additional treatment to add over the room's current absorption. A 5,000 ft^3 room targeting 0.6 s RT60 needs 408 sabins; with 250 sabins already, add 158 sabins of treatment (about 200 ft^2 of a panel at coefficient 0.8). Sizes the absorption, not the axial modes (geometry sets those). The acoustician and the venue govern.
A_required = 0.049 x V / RT60_target (sabins); A_additional = max(0, A_required - A_existing).
W.C. Sabine reverberation equation (public domain) solved for the required absorption, the inverse of the room-acoustics tile.
Sabine's collected papers and the RT60 = 0.049 V / A relation are public-domain physics.
Estimate. AHJ and licensed professional govern.
Field names used by the API: volume_ft3, target_rt60_s, existing_sabins, sabine_coeff, required_sabins, additional_sabins
- Required absorption A_required = 0.049 x V / RT60_target (sabins)Sabine equation
- Additional treatment A_additional = max(0, required - existing); convert sabins to area by / the material coefficientscope of this tile
- Sabine coefficient 0.049 (imperial, ft and ft^3; default, editable)Sabine equation