Development and Validation of a Simulation Framework for Acoustic Intensity Measurements Using Dual-Microphone Probes Under Moving Source and Probe Conditions

This work presents a comprehensive physics-based simulation framework designed to model and assess the performance of acoustic intensity dual-microphone probes under dynamic conditions. The measured quantity, acoustic intensity, is a vector representing the net flow of sound energy through a unit area, allowing for the estimation not only of the amount of energy transmitted but also its direction. This characteristic is of great interest for locating sound sources and evaluating the acoustic power radiated by a source enclosed within a bounding surface. To analyze the quality of the intensity determination, an acoustic propagation model was developed in a MATLAB R2025a environment that allows for the simulation of the generation, three-dimensional propagation, and measurement of sound signals under free-field conditions. The model incorporates moving sources and sensors, precise calculation of propagation delays, and simulation of triaxial probes, also allowing for sensor translations and rotations. From the simulated pressure signals, intensity estimates are obtained using time and frequency-domain methods, and the quality of the estimates is evaluated using error metrics against known geometric references. The results demonstrate the simulator’s ability to generate coherent and controlled datasets and highlight its usefulness as a tool for comparative analysis of intensity estimation methods and for predicting the performance of real probes in dynamic scenarios.