Final Report Summary - OPENPSTD (An open-source software tool for the detailed reproduction of the urban sound environment.)
openPSTD is situated in the field of urban sound propagation, and aims for an open-source software development of the Pseudo-Spectral Time-Domain method (openPSTD). The openPSTD project aims to provide a full-fledged software tool, accessible for academic research purposes, which enables to efficiently and in detail compute urban sound propagation. To achieve this, the computational method behind the tool will be further developed. Within the project, the software tool will also be implemented and applied to studying both reduction of urban noise as well as to support the positive sound environment through auralization. During the project, progress has been made regarding development, implementation and application of openPSTD. As regards the development, source directivity can be modelled in PSTD, the curvilinear Fourier PSTD method has been developed to handle curved shapes and to implement surfaces with arbitrary properties the hybrid PSTD/DG method has been constructed. The openPSTD software has been implemented, in which a geometrical domain can solved by the PSTD subdomain technique and accelerated by a partial implementation of the code on the Graphic Processor Unit (GPU), and the 2D version of openPSTD is openly available including manual at the project website. Applications of the PSTD method to sound propagation and noise control in the built environment include the sound field in a sports hall, noise mitigation by urban vegetation as well as by ground roughness, and quantifying meteorological effects on sound propagation. The use of openPSTD method has been demonstrated to researchers outside the project by workshops and a wider audience has been informed about the project by a series of lectures. In total, 34 publications (of which 17 in international journals) have been published since the start of the project, in particular a journal paper on the open source software tool including software code. New scientific collaborations have been initiated. Also, the fellow of openPSTD has attracted funding from various sources (H2020, national NWO funding and through scholarships) for 18 coworkers, of which 12 are PhD students and 6 project researchers. Supported by the openPSTD project, the fellow of the project has very good prospects to become a tenured scientist at the host institute.