Accuracy of the Kirchoff formula in determining acoustic shielding with the use of a flat plate

It has been suggested that if jet engines of aircraft were placed at above the wing instead of below it, the wing would provide a partial shielding of the noise generated by the engines relative to observers on the ground. The shielding effects of an idealized three-dimensional barrier in the presence of an idealized engine noise source was predicted by the Kirchoff formula. Based on the good agreement between experimental measurements and the numerical results of the current study, it was concluded that the Kirchoff approximation provides a good qualitative estimate of the acoustic shielding of a point source by a rectangular flat plate for measurements taken in the far field of the flat plate at frequencies ranging from 1 kHz to 20 kHz. At frequencies greater than 4 kHz the Kirchoff approximation provides accurate quantitative predictions of acoustic shielding.