SOUND POWER AND

PRESSURE LEVEL
IN FREE SPACE
(OUTDOORS)
Although the propagation of sound
outdoors may not appear to be of
immediate importance in architectural
acoustics, outdoor noise sour.ees such
as traffic, cooling tower, and aircraft are
frequently loud enough to disturb
activities within or immediately
adjacent to a building. Conversely, the
noise made by building equipment,
such as cooling towers, heat pumps,
and even window air conditioners may
be sufficiently loud to disturb neighbors
in a nearby building. For this reason, it
is desirable to have some basic
For preliminary evaluation of an
outdoor noise problem,
assuming a nondirectional
source, one need to know only
the power level radiated by the
source as a function of
frequency and time; from this
one can establish the intensity
level of sound at the
appropriate distance follows:
SPL = PWL - 20 log r + (Q-1) db

Where

SPL = sound pressure level

PWL = equipment power level
r = distance from the source, in feet
Q = directivity factor
This formula is fairly accurate tor a small
source. For small outdoor sources, the
equipment power level can be estimated
by measuring the sound power level at 5
f t and adding 15 db.
For small outdoor sources, the equipment
power level can be estimated by
measuring the sound power level at 5 f t
and adding 15 db. Other factors, such as
moisture in the air, the presence of trees,
wind, and temperature gradients, will
affect outdoor sound propagation to
some extent but they can be ignored
except when great distances (ex: over
Barrier walls (such as solid
fences) are an influence
only when the wall is high,
wide, and near the source,
or near the listener.
Noise travels through,
around, and over barriers.
Others Factors in Hearing

 Masking
When two separate sources of sound are
perceived simultaneously, the perception of
each is made more difficult by the presence of
the other, this is known as masking.
The number of decibels a sound has to be raised
above its threshold when perceived alone, to be
perceived in the presence of another sound
Masking is greatest when two sounds are close
in frequency or frequency content, since the ear
has greater difficulty separating them. They
serve to obliterate lower-level, information-
bearing sounds that would cause annoyance.
Time
Impulse sounds are apprehended at lower
levels than the same sound intensity over a
longer period.
Because of the time-constant of the ear's
mechanical linkages, sounds closer than 10
msec apart cannot be distinguished from
each other, and those up to 50 msec apart
are poorly distinguished
This effect is of particular importance in the
design of halls and auditoriums, with
respect to reception of echoes.
Directivity
The exact mechanism by which the
binaural aspect of hearing detects
direction is not clearly understood. The
single ear is not phase sensitive, but it
may be that binaurally, phase sensitivity
exists, at least at low frequencies, and
that this assists in detection of direction
At high frequencies, phase detection is
clearly nonexistent and sense of direction
may be due to diffraction effects around
the head.
Concept of Reverberation
Although this is not strictly a hearing
phenomenon it is one of the most
pronounced hearing reactions in an
enclosed space. Simply, it is the ear's
reaction to echoes in an enclosed spaced,
giving an impression of "liveness" or
deadness". We can obtain a good
approximation of the subjective feeling of
liveness of a room, for purposes of
speech, from the relation
T= 0.3 log
T= optimum reverberation time in
seconds, for speech
V= room volume in cubic meters
For instance, a typical classroom
might have a volume of 150 (
5300 cu ft.). Optimum
reverberation time is
T = 0.3 log 15
=0.35 sec.
 Reverberation times longer than this
would sound live; shorter ones dead
and flat. Indeed an increase of 20% in
reverberation time would make the
room excessively live and boomy and
would negatively affect speech
intelligibility.
 Effect of Noise on
Hearing
Aside from the annoyance that it causes. Noise has the
effect of reducing the acuity of hearing; that is, it
elevates the threshold of audibility.
Experiments indicates that low-pitched tones especially

if they are considerable loudness, produce a masking

effect upon high-pitched tones, whereas high-pitched
tones produce only little masking upon low-pitched
tones. The auditory masking of one tone upon another is
greatest when the masking ~one is almost identical with
the masked tone. In general, all tones, especially if they
are. loud, offer .considerable masking for all tones of
higher frequency than the Masking tone; Therefore, very
intense low-frequency hums or noise are especially
troublesome sources of interference for the hearing of
speech or music since they mask nearly the entire
audible range of frequencies.