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BE 2: Acoustics, 2017

David Coley (5.23 4ES d.a.coley@bath.ac.uk)

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Learning Outcomes

1. Refresh of acoustics for BE1

2. Being able to do of transmission and reverberation
calculations
3. Via a hands-on exercise, an idea of the sound levels in
various spaces.

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Relevance to Low Carbon Design

and the Early Stages of the Design
Process
 How long can you leave it to decide on:

1. Location and form of windows

2. Mech. vent. or nat. vent.

3. Distance of building from roads

4. High mass of low mass internal walls

5. Shape of rooms

6. Type of internal floors.

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Recap of what sound is 5

Example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k
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+Wave forms of musical instruments 8

all plying the same note

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Fourier transform of a complex

sound

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+ Units: power = 10

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Units: intensity

If A = 1m2, then the sound intensity, I, at a point on

the sphere will be given by

p 2
I=
rc
This is very similar to power = voltage2/resistance used
when discussing electricity, and ρc does play a role similar
to a resistance, or more accurately an impedance, and is
termed the acoustic impedance.

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Units: decibels

 Ear responds to E not p. Therefore unit must

be p2 not p.

 Min = 10-12 W/m2 and will only feel pain at 10

W/m2 = 13 orders of magnitude.

 Therefore log scale.

 BUT below 1W/m2 logs will be negative

 So: comparing a sound that has a value of

minus 2.3 to one with a value of 0.3 is not
instinctive, and on this scale a sound with a
value of 0 would in fact be very loud.
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Units: bels

Transformed measured value =

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A human’s minimum sensitivity to sound (i.e. the quietest

sound we can hear) is 10-12Wm-2 and the loudest before we
feel pain, 10Wm-2. Putting these two numbers into the last
equation, we have:

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Units: sound pressure level

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Units: sound power level

(The power is obtained from power = intensity x area = (p2/ρc) (4 π r2) for
pressure measurements on a sphere.)

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SPL ≠ SWL

≠
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The frequency spectrum

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 Loudness – the dBA

Octave
band
frequencies

dBA
Linear (unfiltered)

Frequency (Hz): 63 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000Hz

True spectrum 78 69 59 58 59 55 48
dBA correction -26 -16 -9 -3 0 +1 +1
dBA spectrum 52 53 50 55 59 56 49

Decibel addition of last row gives 63 dBA

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Disturbance: BS4142

For disturbance in the home the question is likely to be more about how
annoying the noise is rather than whether it makes speech communication
difficult. It is also likely to be highly related to how noisy other surrounding
activities are. British Standard BS4142, which sets out whether a new source of
sound is likely to be considered annoying takes this into account. It states that
if a noise is 10 dB(A) above the pre-existing background then it is likely to
give rise to complaints (and is therefore probably unacceptable); if it is 5
dB(A) above, the case is considered marginal; 0 dB(A) or less then complaint
is unlikely. If the sound is tonal, these numbers are reduced by 5 dB and by 5
dB if they are impulsive (i.e. banging)

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+ 1. Sound in rooms 21

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Reflections
Principle of reflection Time

Direct Sound First Reflection Multiple Reflections

In the Linder Theater at the American Museum of

Natural History in New York City, unperforated metal
ceiling panels were used help reflect sound to the
back of the hall. The panels' curves helped to scatter
the sound for a more uniform quality throughout the
room. Kupiec Koustsomitis Architects was the
designer.
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Absorption

Assume a concrete wall:

• 99% of sound is reflected
• 1% transmitted into the wall
• Only 1% of this 1% would exit the wall
• This is a sound reduction index of
30dB.

Often we were concerned with the 1%,

now we are concerned about the 99%.

We want to reduce it so noise in the room

does not become intolerable, and we
want to do it without increasing the 1%.
There are several ways we can do this.

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total absorption = absorption coefficient x surface area,

As absorption coefficients are frequency

dependent, the total absorption provided
by a surface will also be frequency
dependent.
+ Porous Absorbers 25

At 3400Hz we have
• ¼ x 340/3400 = 0.025
m = 2.5cm,
• But at 340Hz, we have
¼ x 340/340 = 25cm
• Hence we can expect
porous, surface
mounted, absorbers of
practicable depth to
work less well at lower
frequencies.

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+ Porous Absorbers 26

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+ …. the solution 27

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+ Resonant Absorbers 28

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Panel absorbers
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+ Reverberation: the key concept 32

Why do they sound different?

The reverberation time of a room will depend on four factors:

The area of all the surfaces in the space

The absorption coefficient of these surfaces
The volume of the space
The frequency of the sound.

Example values of R at 1kHz range from 0.4s for a domestic sitting room to 2s
for a concert hall, to over 10s in some cathedrals.
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Sound decay in a room with and without a carpet.

A simple way to get an idea of the reverberation time in a room with a long
reverberation time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEYO16fQqno

A more professional way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVvH07DXsrY

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Tmf = (T500 + T1000 +T2000)/3

Surface Frequency, Hz
500 1000 2000
Plasterboard ceiling 0.15 0.05 0.05
Office carpet 0.1 0.20 0.45
Plastered block walls 0.06 0.08 0.04
Glass 0.2 0.1 0.05
Desk and chair 0.05 0.1 0.15
Person
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Adding in chairs and people

See values for A for a chair and person on last slide

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What happens if we use too much

absorption or too little

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyP7i1B_QNk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzMSjX7uE10

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+2. Sound Transmission Through 37

Partitions
The sound pressure level SPL2 in the receiving room is calculated from the
known sound pressure level SPL1 in the source room, the area A of the
partition, the sound reduction index R (which is measured in dB and is in
essence an insertion loss) of the partition (of area Sp), the total absorption of
the receiving room A (= αmS; where S = is the total surface area of the receiving
room) using: Look for:
SPL2 = SPL1 – R + 10logSp - 10logA • R – high (more later)
• Sp - small
• A - high
• SPL in source room – low
• NO GAPS

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+ Flanking 38

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Sound Reduction Index, SRI or R
R = SPL in source room – SPL in receiving room

= 10log(Psource / P0) – 10log(Preceiving /P0)

+ R = SPL in source room – SPL in receiving room

= 10log(Psource / P0) – 10log(Preceiving /P0)

If R = 40dB:

40 = 10log(Psource /P0) – 10log(Preceiving /P0)

4 = log(Psource /P0) – log(Preceiving /P0)

4 = log(Psource / Preceiving)

10000 = Psource / Preceiving

Preceiving = Psource / 10000

i.e. the wall has removed all but one ten-thousandth of the energy,
yet loud sounds would clearly be heard through the wall. This is of
course testament to the amazing abilities of our ears to cover
thirteen orders of magnitude.
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In general R increases with
frequency
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The mass law

R = 20logMf – 43 dB

Where M is mass of the wall per unit area and f the frequency

Or
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The mass law in frequency space for partitions weighing 1 (dotted), 10 (solid) and
100 (chain) kg.m-2.
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The mass law in mass space for sound at 125 (dotted), 1600 (solid) and 6400
(chain) Hz.
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Resonance etc.

Coincidence
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In theory

Transmission through a partition

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In practice
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The mass law in general seems to work
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Improving the performance of
floors

Floors may need to be floated if vertical sound transmission is an issue

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Example: using foam blocks

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Or via underfloor heating

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If floating the floor is not possible, a heavyweight acoustic barrier will have to
be placed under the floor
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Measuring room-to-room sound

transmission

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYRr0JS9WXg

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Facades built of Multiple elements

A partition is often made of more than one construction. In order to

calculate the transmission, we need to find the average R for the
partition (Rav) in each octave band. Clearly, this average will have to
be some kind of area weighted average as we might have very
different areas (Si) of each material. The equation for n elements is:
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The role of holes

Rtotal=-10log[(1/Stotal)(S1 10-R1/10 + S2 10-R2/10)]

where Stotal = S1 + S2, i.e. the sum of the two areas.

So if the wall area is 20m2 with R1 = 40 and the hole 0.01m2 with R = 0, then
Rtotal=32 dB.

But now spend a lot of money on making the wall have an R of 60, but don’t
repair the hole.

Now Rtotal=33dB wall i.e. all that extra money only added 1 dB.
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