Acoustics and Design

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Acoustics and Design

1. Introduction
What is covered: Noise sources, design criteria for different buildings and spaces, assessment of noise levels, and noise control. Design issues associated with acoustic performance inside buildings due to internal or external noise sources. What is not covered: Buildings where there are special acoustic constraints e.g. auditoria. Factories (and buildings where there is 24 hour work e.g hospitals) where it may be important to assess the effect of noise generated on adjacent dwellings. Sound systems in buildings. These may be required for emergency warning (e.g. fire alarm), paging system, lecture and conference rooms, sports stadia, railway stations etc.

Examples
External environment: buildings adjacent to motorways where they may be a need for a sealed building with mechanical ventilation; How noisy can it be before a building cannot be naturally ventilated? Internal environment: Office space within factories next to noisy process plant. How can sound levels in offices be made acceptable?

Acoustic assessments through the design process: stages of design

STAGE Site ISSUES Rural or industrial - planning regulations Transportation noise - roads/rail/aircraft (prediction of future levels) Industrial noise sources Airborne noise and/or vibration Building form Site planning and screening Ventilation - natural or mechanical Location of plant rooms Detailed design Room-to-room noise Outside-to-inside noise HVAC noise Room acoustics Sound insulation Sound systems Supervision Retrofit Quality of construction Remedial action Commissioning Compare actual noise levels to intended levels and criteria

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References:
CIBSE Vol A1 for criteria for design; Vol B12 for sound control in building services. British Standard Code of Practice BS8233:1987 Sound insulation and noise reduction for buildings. Croome DJ, Noise Buildings and People, Pergamon, 1977. Smith BJ, Peters RJ and Owen S, Acoustics and Noise Control, Longman 1982.

2. Basic Acoustic Terminology

Sound power and sound pressure are expressed in dB - i.e.as a ratio relative to some reference level. Sound Power Level = PWL = 10 log10(Wsource/Wref) dB where: Wref is 10-12 W; Wsource is sound power in W. If sound power increases by a factor of 2, this is equivalent to a 3dB increase. Sound Pressure Level = SPL = 10 log10( P2 / Pref2 ) dB where Pref = 2 . 10-5 Pa; P = sound pressure in Pa

For ducts with no attenuation, sound pressure propagation is 1-dimensional and the SPL is constant. For spherical spreading, a doubling of distance results in a 6dB reduction in SPL.

Octave band calculation/measurement: The absorbing/insulating properties of materials vary significantly with frequency of the sound source. Thus measurements and calculations often need to be undertaken in octave bands (or 1/3 octave bands for more detailed work). A crude approximation sometimes used for broad-band noise is that transmission/absorption characteristics over the full acoustic spectrum is similar to the response at 500Hz. Note that the human ear responds to frequencies in the range 20Hz to 20kHz approximately. dB; dBA; The ear also responds in a non-linear way, with maximum sensitivity around 2 or 3 kHz and much lower sensitivity at low frequencies. A commonly used metric is the A-weighted dB (dBA) which is weighted according to the typical human ears frequency response. Leq; LA10; LA90 Leq is the time averaged sound pressure level and is used for time-varying signals. LA10 is the SPL which is exceeded for 10% of the time. LA90 is the SPL which is exceeded for 90% of the time (the "background" level). Absorption and insulation Absorption is quantified as the absorption coefficient - the proportion not reflected Insulation is quantified as the Sound Reduction Index SRI (in dB) - a measure of the reduction in transmission. It is a property of the building construction only. Reverberation time - the time it takes for a sound to decay by 60dB. It is governed by the absorption characteristics

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for the room. Sabines formula is commonly used: T = 0.161 V / A where T is the reverberation time (s); V is room volume (m3); A is total absorption (room surface area x average absorption coefficient + absorption of furniture/people, m2). Level difference is simply the difference between source and received sound levels for airborne noise. The level difference is affected by the level of absorption and thus the reverberation time in the receiving room. It is therefore usually standardised (DnT) to allow for the fact that most occupied domestic rooms have a reverberation time of about 0.5s. For impact noise, a standardised impact SPL is used - obtained by measurement with a standard source.

3. Noise Sources
3.1 Central Plant
Fans: Primarily resulting from turbulent fluctuations in air pressure, but can also result from vibrations. Axial fans generally have lower noise output than centrifugal fans except at low frequencies. Pumps: Other equipment: Boilers, motors, compressors etc.

3.2 Noise in Airflow Systems

Larger diameter ducts - lower air velocity, less noise. also need to reduce abrupt transitions to avoid turbulence Can add sound absorbent lining or attenuators(silencers). beware of possibility of breakout at any airgaps. Diffusers - data from manufacturer, or estimate from CIBSE: PWL = 32 + 13 log10 A + 60 log10 v where A is the minimum open area in m2 ; v is air speed in m/s (e.g. for an air speed of 4m/s and a 200mm x 200mm opening; PWL ~50dB )

3.3 External Noise

Road traffic calculation of predicted SPL for new roads measurement or calculation for existing roads Aircraft Rail Industrial sources - in general requires site survey to BS4142

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External equipment and plant

4. Design Criteria
4.1 Regulations
Noise at Work Regulations - legal duties of employers (and equipment suppliers) to minimize hearing damage. Town and Country Planning Regulations - define environmental assessments for any major projects of more than local importance, or projects in sensitive areas. Detailed Building Regulations - performance criteria by conforming to design or by measurement - but only for housing.

4.2 Houses
For houses, background noise in the house due to external noise sources should be: <35 dB LAeq for the period 23:00 to 07:00 in bedrooms; <40 dB LAeq for the period 07:00 to 23:00 in living and dining rooms; <50 dB LAeq for the period 07:00 to 23:00 in less sensitive rooms. The Building Regulations give acceptable constructions and connections for all parts of the building.

4.3 Other buildings

For other buildings, Noise Rating criteria are used: NR curves recommended noise ratings for spaces speech intelligibility (privacy) There are no regulations governing acceptable noise levels in offices. BS8233:1987 recommends 40-45dB LAeq for private offices and small conference rooms, and 45-50dB LAeq for open-plan offices. This indicates that where external noise levels are in excess of 60dB LAeq (e.g. from road traffic noise), then a sealed office with mechanical ventilation will be required.

4.4 Reverberation Time

Acceptable reverberation times can be specified for rooms for best reception for speech or music. This is primarily of interest to large specialised spaces - auditoria, lecture theatres etc.

5. Assessment of Room Sound Level

To find the total sound pressure levels in a room: define individual noise sources and their PWL, include the modifying characteristics of the transmission paths (e.g. SRI), apply the acoustic properties of the receiving room (amount of acoustic absorption), and sum.

5.1 Outside Noise Environment

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This is important, as it has implications for ventilation, and possibly glazing/constructions e.g. near airports or busy roads. Considerations include: external barriers around site - height is critical: note the potential impact on shading; magnitude of noise sources by measurement, or in case of traffic, calculation based on vehicle flow rates, speed, ratio of heavy/light vehicles, road surface, gradient, distance from road to building, screening correction. distance is important: with vegetation and <4m reception point, as high as 7dBA for doubling of distance; with a hard surface or water only 3dBA for a doubling of distance.

5.2 Internal Noise Environment

Consider paths for transmission in buildings.

SPLr = SPLs - SRI + 10 log10 (Sw / A) where: SPLr is the sound pressure level in receiving room; SPLs is the sound pressure level in source room; SRI is the sound reduction index; Sw is area of separating wall; A is total absorption in receiving room (surface area x average absorption coefficient + absorption of furniture/people, m2). Example calculation for outside noise (to be added) Example calculation for diffuser noise (to be added)

6. Control of Noise
In all cases consider (in order) source, transmission path and receiver.

6.1 Planning to Control External Noise

Control of source usually not possible (except by planning constraints). Transmission path can be influenced by: location of the building on the site; screening of the site; internal planning of the building; building form and orientation. Control at receiver by improving insulation of the building envelope, but the site itself may not be protected, so gardens/public areas may be noisy. The building must be well sealed to give maximum insulation, requiring mechanical ventilation.

6.2 Planning to Control Internal Noise

Reduce noise at source where possible (e.g. acoustic enclosures for noisy machinery). Internal planning - ensure that adjacent rooms are compatible in terms of noise sensitivity and noise production. Improve room-to-room sound insulation.

6.3 Use of Mass

The sound insulation of any single-leaf wall or floor built without gaps depends mainly on its MASS. According to the

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MASS LAW, there will be an increase in sound insulation of about 5dB if the mass/unit area is doubled. The insulation also increases by about 6dB for a doubling of frequency. However, this is only true up to a critical frequency, beyond which there will be a dip in insulation. The critical frequency is about 100Hz for a one-brick wall, 200Hz for a half-brick wall. Critical frequencies in the range 100Hz to 1000Hz should be avoided.

6.4 Use of Isolation

Double leaf walls give good insulation if they are completely decoupled. For example, 2 sheets of plasterboard bonded together will give 30dB attenuation; this would increase to 50dB if they were perfectly isolated. In practice, attenuation may vary according to how rigid the link is between the two leaves and the width of the airgap. Absorbent quilt in the airgap improves performance - not because it is a good sound absorber, but because it helps to isolate the two leaves of the partition. High levels of insulation can be achieved with care and expense - for example, separation of multiplex cinema auditoria of weighted standardised level difference (DnT) of 65dB to over 70dB has been achieved by using 2 layers of 15mm plasterboard on separate studs, a large cavity with 100mm quilt inlay and careful head, base and edge detailing.

6.5 Control of Flanking Transmission

Detailing for houses are given in the Building Regulations. If flanking constructions are not properly specified (and constructed), the flanking transmssion can equal or even exceed direct transmission.

6.6 Quality of Detailing

Small flaws in construction can lead to large differences in insulation. For example, this may be due to: Small airgaps in mortar joints or under skirting boards. For example, an opening of area 0.1m2 (SRI of 0dB) in a facade of area 25m2 (SRI of 50dB) reduces the overall SRI value to 24dB. Mechanical bridging of air gaps (nails through floating floors etc). Excessive flanking transmission.

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