BUILDING ACOUSTICS

Sound can be described as a disturbance which passes through a physical medium, in the form of
longitudinal wave from a source to a receiver causing a sensation of hearing. The medium could be solid,
liquid or gas. The speed at which sound travels in the different media differs due to their molecular
composition.

Acoustics looks at the production, control, transmission, reception and effects of sound.

Terms

Sound intensity [SI]

It’s the power carried by sound waves per unit area. Expressed in watts per meter square [W/M2]

Decibel

A unit used to measure the intensity of sound.

Reverberation time

The time taken by the sound in a room to fall from its average intensity to inaudibility level. The time
during which the sound energy density falls from its steady state.

Absorption co efficient

It’s defined as the ratio of sound energy absorbed by it to the total sound energy incident on it.

Properties of sound

1. Wavelength.
The wavelength of a sound wave is the distance between the start and end of a sound wave
cycle or the distance between two successive sound wave pressure peaks. Numerically, it is
equal to the speed of sound in the material such as air divided by the frequency of the sound
wave.
2. Period.time taken for one complete oscillation. Measured in seconds .represented as [[T]

3. Frequency.the number of oscillations per second. Represented as [F] .measured in Hertz. [HZ]

4. Velocity.its the rate at which sound travels through a medium from the source to the receiver.
Measured in meters per second-M/S.

5. Amplitude. It’s the distance between crest [highest point] to the valley [the lowest point]

6. Pitch.its the highness/lowness of a tone determined by the rapidity of the oscillations producing it.
Noise Pollution

Noise is defined as unwanted sound that masks the satisfactory hearing. In a building there are 2 types
of noises to be minimized.

 Air borne
 Structure borne

Airborne

The noise that comes into the building through air from a distant source. A part of it enters directly
through doors and windows and other openings while the other part enters by transmission through
walls and floors.

Control

 Locate buildings away from heavy traffic and market places

 Interpose a buffer zone of trees and gardens.

Structure borne

It’s the noise that comes from impact sources on the structural extents of the building. It’s directly
transmitted to the building by vibrations in the structure. Some of the sources include; footsteps,
moving of furniture, operating machinery etc.

Control

 Placing vibration isolators between the machine and their support.

 Cavity walls, compound walls may be used to help increase the noise transmission loss.

Illustration

A. The sound of a plane’s engine is a kind of exterior airborne sound that may affect communities
near airports.

B. The MTR’s operating systems are quiet, but the vibration of the train rail generates exterior
structure-borne noise.

C. In a gymnasium, cheering spectators may cause interior airborne noise to the surrounding
rooms, while the athletes’ activities generate interior structure-borne noise.
Sound insulation

Floors

The sound insulation of floors refers to the ability of a floor system to reduce airborne noise entering
your residence from residences above and below, and noise caused by movement such as walking from
residences above. The sound insulation of floors is considered in the design of apartments, residential
buildings, hotels, motels and aged care buildings. Residents in these buildings need to be insulated from
the noise generating activities of adjacent residents.

The natural mass of concrete floors provides insulation against airborne sound but concrete can transfer
impact sound; therefore a resilient layer is also needed to provide insulation against impact sound.
Older methods of construction increased the mass of timber floors by the use of sand pugging within the
joist space. More recent methods of mass enhancement include the use of thick layers of composite
floorboard or multiple layers of plasterboard.

The insulation of a floor must be maintained at all junctions with the surrounding walls in order to
prevent flanking transmission. The separation of the two parts of a floating floor must continue around
all the edges by the use of resilient materials and airtight techniques.

Windows

Glass has relatively high density so increasing the thickness of glass provides improved sound insulation
because of the Mass Law. Air cavities can provide worthwhile increased sound insulation if their width is
greater than 150 mm. The cavity should be lined with absorbent material to minimise resonance and the
two frames must be isolated from one another by some construction technique such as a resilient layer.
Such efforts for increased sound insulation are a waste of time unless the windows also shut with a good
seal in order to provide air tightness.

Walls

Heavyweight walls generally provide high levels of airborne sound insulation because of the effect of
the Mass Law. Cavities can increase sound insulation by the principle of isolation but practical cavity
walls with wire ties behave little better in practice than a double skin of bricks.
Lightweight walls can provide adequate levels of airborne sound insulation if attention is paid to the
principles of isolation and air tightness. Each side of the wall is built on separate timber frames and an
absorbent blanket of mineral fibre is used to provide acoustical isolation between the sides of the wall.
The mass provided by multiple layers of dense plasterboard contributes significantly to the insulation of
the wall.