The EU project CAHRISMA (Conservation of the Acoustical Heritage by the Revival and Indentification of the Sinan’s Mosques Acoustics) investigates, among other things, the acoustics in some of the old churches and mosques in Istanbul, Turkey. The present paper deals with acoustic computer simulations of churches and mosques within this project.
Three Byzantine churches: Saint Sophie, Saint Irene and Sergius & Bacchus and three mosques: Süleymaniye, Sokullu and Selimiye (situated in Edime) were modeled in the Odeon room acoustic program. These geometries are dominated by spherical and cylindrical (concave/convex) shapes; especially large domes dominating the ceiling. Another feature in the rooms is numerous columns and galleries obstructing the direct sound In the models, calculation parameters such as transition order (TO), number of rays and the number of subdivision into plane surfaces of concave/convex surfaces are changed. This is done in order to investigate the effect on the results for the different room acoustic parameters (according to ISO 3382). The simulations are compared with room acoustic measurements made in the real rooms.