CHAPTER TWO

Sound

Prepared By – Milat Kiflu

March 2021
 Table of Contents
1. What Is Sound?...........................................................................................................................2
2. How is sound produced?.............................................................................................................2
3. Sound-conducting media............................................................................................................3
4. Attributes of Sound.....................................................................................................................3
5. Spatial variation in pressure wave..............................................................................................3
6. Features of a pressure waveform................................................................................................5
7. Sound power and pressure..........................................................................................................6
8. The Audible Spectrum................................................................................................................7
9. Propagation of sound..................................................................................................................7
10. Sound field definitions..............................................................................................................7
11. Inverse square law....................................................................................................................9
12. Acoustic quantities..................................................................................................................10
13. Decibel(dB).............................................................................................................................10
14. Common dB Levels................................................................................................................11
15. Sound level in Decibel (dB)...................................................................................................11

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 CHAPTER TWO
SOUND

1. What Is Sound?
 It may be defined as the propagation of a pressure wave in space and time.
 A wave is a force/disturbance that propagates from the place where it was created.
 propagates through a medium.
 Is an oscillating wave of pressure that can travel through solids, liquids, and gases.
 Is within a frequency range and of sufficient power level to be perceived by receptive
organs.

2. How is a sound produced?

 Sound is produced due to the disturbance of air, generally from a vibrating object.
 A speaker cone is a good illustration. It may be possible to see the movement of a speaker
cone, providing it is producing very low-frequency sound. As the cone moves forward the
air immediately in front is compressed causing a slight increase in air pressure, it then
moves back past its rest position and causes a reduction in the air pressure is rarefaction.
The process continues so that a wave of alternating high and low pressure is radiated away
from the speaker cone at the speed of sound.
 Electromagnetic waves differ from mechanical waves in that they do not require a
medium to propagate. This means that electromagnetic waves can travel not only through
air and solid materials but also through the vacuum of space.

 A simple acoustic system consists of a source, some conveying medium, and a receiver.
The source is a vibrating body, which converts some other form of energy into vibration.
The word transducer is often used for devices converting other forms of energy into sound
(e.g., a loudspeaker) or vice versa (e.g., a microphone). The conveying medium may be a
gas (e.g., air), which transmits the vibration in the form of longitudinal waves (alternating
compressions and rarefactions).

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  (e.g., mechanical impact on a solid body, air pressure acting on a column of air, such as in
a whistle or pipe, electrical energy acting on a steel membrane or a crystal, etc.).

3. Sound-conducting media
 Medium is composed of molecules
 Molecules have “wiggle(shaking) room”
 Molecules exhibit random motion
 Molecules can exert pressure

A B

4. Attributes of Sound
 Sounds are characterized by wavelength (λ in m) or frequency (f in Hz) and the product
of the two, the velocity (v in m/s)
 Amplitude - the pressure difference between the –ve and +ve
extremes, (compression and rarefaction)
 Frequency (Hz) - the number of cycles that occur in a second.
 Wavelength(λ) - the linear measurement of one complete cycle.
 period (T) - which is the time taken for one cycle of a wave to pass a fixed point.
 It is related to frequency by T = 1/f

5. Spatial variation in a pressure wave

 wavelength () is the distance covering adjacent high- and low-pressure regions

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6. Features of a pressure waveform
Amplitude
 Measured in pressure units
 peak amplitude
 peak-to-peak amplitude
 Instantaneous amplitude
Period and Frequency
 The period measured in time (basic quantity)
-1
 Frequency is a rate measure (per unit time) expressed as Hertz (s ) and is the number of
wave cycles of sound per time, usually a second.
 May be expressed as octaves, semitones, etc.
Pitch
 The perceived sensation of sound frequencies is interpreted by the brain on a scale from
high to low.
 Pitch is subjective and can be influenced by the environment, distortion, reflections,
movement, etc.
 The higher the frequency, the higher the perceived pitch.
 Frequency is perceived as pitch and the ‘strength’ of sound is measured either by its
pressure, p (in Pa), or by its power density or intensity, I (in W/m2). The latter is the
density of the energy flow rate.
Phase
 Measured in degrees (relative to period length)
 0-360 degrees
The amplitude of the wave depicts pressure.
 The higher the amplitude, the louder the sound.
This transfer of energy takes time.
 Each complete sequence of motion (compression and rarefaction) constitutes a
cycle, and This transfer of energy takes time.
The time required to complete one cycle is the cycle period.
 The frequency of the periodic motion is the number of cycles that occur in a second.
 The unit of measure for frequency is the hertz (Hz).
 One hertz is equal to one cycle per second.
The wavelength of the sound is the linear measurement of one complete cycle.
The speed of sound transmission is a physical property of the medium.
 For air, the speed varies slightly with temperature change. Because the temperature range
encountered in the study of HVAC acoustics is relatively small, the speed of sound can be
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 considered a constant 344 m/s (1,127 ft/s). For example, sound traveling through the air at
a frequency of 200 Hz has a wavelength of 1.7 m (5.6 ft).
 A pure sinusoidal waveform, however, is very rare in HVAC acoustics. Typically, sounds
are of a broadband nature, meaning that the sound is composed of several frequencies and
amplitudes, all generated at the same time. Figure 6 represents the components of
broadband sound.

7. Sound power and pressure

Sound power
 Acoustical energy emitted by the sound source.
 Unaffected by the environment.
Sound pressure
 Pressure disturbance in the atmosphere.
 Affected by the strength of the source, surroundings, and distance between source and
receiver.
Analogy
 Sound power; Correlates to bulb wattage
 Sound pressure; Correlates to the brightness
 Think of sound power as the wattage rating of a light bulb.
o Both measure a fixed amount of energy. Whether you put a 100-watt light bulb
outdoors or in a closet, it is always a 100-watt light bulb.
o always gives off the same amount of light.
 Sound pressure corresponds to the brightness, from the light emitted by the light bulb, in a
particular location in the room.
o Both sound pressure and brightness can be measured with a meter, and the
immediate surroundings influence the magnitude of each.
o In the case of light, brightness depends on more than the wattage of the bulb.
 It also depends on how far the observer is from the light bulb, the color of the room, how
reflective the wall surfaces are, and whether the light bulb is covered with a shade. These
other factors affect how much light reaches the receiver but do not affect the wattage of
the light bulb.
 Similarly, sound pressure depends not only on the sound power emitted by the source but
also on the characteristics of the surrounding environment. These might include the
distance between the sound source and the listener, whether the room is carpeted or tiled,
and whether the room is furnished or bare. Just as with light, environmental factors like
these affect how much sound reaches the listener.

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8. The Audible Spectrum
 20Hz – 20,000Hz
o The human ear is typically capable of hearing between 20Hz – 20kHz
o Females can usually hear slightly higher frequencies than males
o Frequencies above 20kHz are ultrasonic
o Frequencies below 20Hz are infrasonic
o The human voice is usually in the 500Hz to 3500Hz range and is where the majority
of acoustic tests are centered.

9. Propagation of sound
The speed of propagation, c, of sound in air is 343 m/s, at 20C and one-atmosphere pressure. At
other temperatures (not too different from 20C), it may be calculated using:

10. Sound field definitions

 Free field
 Near field
 Far field
 Direct field
 Reverberant field
a. Free field
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The free field is a region in space where sound may propagate free from any form of
obstruction.
b. Near field
The near field of a source in the region close to a source where the sound pressure and acoustic
particle velocity are not in phase. In this region, the sound field does not decrease by 6 dB each
time the distance from the source is increased (as it does in the far-field).
The near field is limited to a distance from the source equal to about a wavelength of sound or
equal to three times the largest dimension of the sound source (whichever is the larger).
c. Far-field
The far-field of a source begins where the near field ends and extends to infinity. Note that the
transition from near to far-field is gradual in the transition region.
In the far-field, the direct field radiated by most machinery sources will decay at the rate of 6 dB
each time the distance from the source is doubled. For line sources such as traffic noise, the
decay rate varies between 3 and 4 dB
d. Direct field
The direct field of a sound source is defined as that part of the sound field which has not
suffered any reflection from any room surfaces or obstacles.
e. Reverberant field
The reverberant field of a source is defined as that part of the sound field radiated by a source
that has experienced at least one reflection from a boundary of the room or enclosure containing
the source.
When a wavefront reaches an obstacle (e.g., a wall or a screen) the original pattern of waves
continues above the top of this obstacle, but it will create an acoustic shadow.
This may be quite clearly defined for a very high-frequency sound (similar to light shadow),
but at low frequencies diffraction occurs at the edge of the obstacle, and that edge behaves as a
virtual source, as shown in the below Fig.

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A sound field is the volume of space where vibrations emitted by a source are detectable.
o A free field is one where the effects of boundaries are negligible, where there are no
significant reflections.
When a uniform point source emits a sound, this energy flow spreads in all radial directions,
distributed over the surface of a sphere of increasing radius.
o As the surface of a sphere is 4πr2, the sound intensity (power density) at any distance r
from the source will be:

11. Inverse-square law

 E.g., take power P=10W

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 12.Acoustic quantities
Seeing the above table, it’s understood that the range of sound pressures that can be heard by a
human ear is very large. A range of this magnitude makes using a linear measurement scale
cumbersome, so the logarithmic scale is used instead.
Sounds encompass a wide range of volumes, or levels. The loudest sound the human ear can
hear without damage due to prolonged exposure is about 1,000,000,000 times greater than the
quietest perceptible sound. A range of this magnitude makes using an arithmetic scale
cumbersome, so a logarithmic scale is used instead.

13. Decibel(dB)
Unit of relative loudness:
 a unit of relative loudness, electric voltage, or current equal to ten times the common
logarithm of the ratio of two readings.
 For sound, the decibel scale runs from zero for the least perceptible sound to 130 for a
sound that causes pain.
 A logarithmic unit that expresses the intensity or power of something.

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  In acoustics, it measures Sound Pressure Level (SPL) as compared to a reference level
(0db). 0 dB is not dead silent!
 In humans, the ratio of SPL intensity causing permanent damage to the quietest perceived
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sound is over a trillion so it is expressed logarithmically base 10 = 12 which is
expressed as 0-120 (dB)
 Every - 10db is half as loud.

14. Common dB Levels

Decibel (db)

Rain 40 db

Normal Conversation 60 dB

Busy Traffic 85 dB

Rock Concerts 105 dB

Maximum I-pod Volume 115 dB

Gunshots 140 dB

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15. Sound level in Decibel (dB)
Sound level in Decibel (dB) can be calculated as:
 Sound Power Level
 Sound Pressure Level
 Sound Intensity Level
a. Sound Pressure Level

 The sound pressure is a measured root mean square (r.m.s.) value and the internationally
agreed reference pressure:

 When this value for the reference pressure is substituted into the previous equation, the
following convenient alternative form is obtained:

b. Sound Intensity Level

 A sound intensity level, LI, may be defined as follows:

 An internationally agreed reference intensity is , in which case the previous

equation takes the following form:

c. Sound Power Level

 The sound power level, Lw (or PWL), may be defined as follows:

 The internationally agreed reference power is. Again, the following convenient
form is obtained when the reference sound power is introduced into the above equation:

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  The intensities of the two sounds are additive, but not the corresponding sound levels. If
sound levels are given, they must be converted to intensities, these intensities can be
added, then the resulting sound level must be found.
 Measuring sound using a logarithmic scale means that decibel values cannot be added
arithmetically. Instead, logarithmic addition must be used to add two or more sound levels.
This involves converting the decibel values into ratios of sound intensity, adding these
ratios, and then converting the sum back into decibels. The mathematics become rather
involved the graph in Figure 1 has been developed to simplify the procedure.
 To demonstrate the use of this figure, consider the example of adding a 50 dB sound to a
44 dB sound. The difference between these two sounds is 6 dB. Therefore, 1 dB is added
to the higher of the two sounds (50 plus 1) to arrive at the logarithmic sum of 51 dB.
 Also, notice that the logarithmic sum of two sounds of equal magnitude (0 dB difference)
results in a 3 dB increase. Therefore, adding two 50 dB sounds would result in a combined
sound level of 53 dB.

Remember
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Acoustics…. It’s More Than Just Sound!

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