The modelling of desk screens by a combined BEM – Source image approach.

An original BEM approach is proposed to study the efficiency of desk screens in open plan offices. For large offices the volume geometry can be approximated by two horizontal planes – for floor and ceiling – and the source image approach is used to compute an approximated room Green function. When used in combination with the BEM approach, this allows reducing the discretised boundary to the desks only. The computation of the room Green functions is based on the modelling of the floor and ceiling response by means of the image source approach. The proposed approach is validated both numerically and experimentally. Very significant reductions of computation times have been obtained. The approach is used in an attempt to design efficient desk screens.