ARCHITECTURAL ACOUSTICS

ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE

Submitted To: Submitted By:

Dr. Aniket Sharma Ananya Sharma, 16606
Manish Thakur, 16607
 ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE
• Environmental noise is an increasing problem in modern day society; sound planning conducts
environmental noise assessments, evaluates the extent of noise problems in accordance with
relevant british standards and formulates noise mitigation strategies to reduce noise problems.
 ENVIRONMENTAL NOISE ASSESSMENTS
• Road traffic
• Rail traffic
• Air traffic
• Industrial noise
• Heating & ventilation noise
• Entertainment noise
• Wind farm noise
• Kitchen extraction
• Pump/generator noise
• Sports/recreational noise
 WHAT IS NOISE?
• NOISE IS TYPICALLY DEFINED AS "UNWANTED
SOUND", SOUND BEING THE HUMAN
SENSATION OF PRESSURE FLUCTUATIONS IN
THE AIR. SOUND LEVELS ARE EXPRESSED IN
DECIBELS (DB) ON A LOGARITHMIC SCALE,
WHERE 0DB IS NOMINALLY THE "THRESHOLD
OF HEARING" AND 120DB IS NOMINALLY THE
"THRESHOLD OF PAIN".
 TYPES OF NOISE:
• ROAD TRAFFIC NOISE
• AIRCRAFT NOISE
• RAILWAY NOISE

TYPES OF SOURCES
• FIXED SOURCES
• MOVING SOURCES
• PARTIAL LINE SOURCES
 FIXED SOURCES

• Stationary sources such as pumps, compressors, fans, and emergency generators, which are a
fundamental part of buildings, can radiate noise into adjoining properties.
• The leq for a fixed source can be calculated from the steady level emitted over a given time period.

Leq = ls + 10 log (t / t)

• Where
Leq = Equivalent sound level (db or dba)
Ls = Steady sound level (db or dba)
T = Time the source is on (sec)
T = Total time T ≥ t (sec)
 MOVING SOURCES
• Moving sources such as automobiles, trucks, railroads, and aircraft often dominate fixed sources in
the urban environment, but are more transient and difficult to control.

• Where
Leq= Equivalent sound level (dB or dBA)
Lr= Average reference sound level at distance dr (db or dBA)
D = Distance of closest approach (m or ft)
V = Source speed (m/s or ft/s)
T = Time (s)
N = Number of vehicles passing the measurement point in time T
Σ = Standard deviation of the reference sound level (dB or dBA)
 PARTIAL LINE SOURCES
• When a sound source traverses a line segment, or when only part of a straight roadway is to be
modeled, the configuration is called a partial line source.

• Thus we regain the expected point source fall off for the changes in level from distant line source
elements.
 BARRIERS

• POINT SOURCE BARRIERS

• PRACTICAL BARRIER CONSTRAINTS
• BARRIER MATERIALS
• ROADWAY BARRIERS
 POINT SOURCE BARRIERS
• Barriers are the most commonly used way of controlling
exterior noise.
• Barrier attenuation for a point source is calculated using the
maximum fresnel number, which is determined from the
difference between the shortest propagation path that
touches the edge of the barrier and the direct path through
the barrier. The geometry is given in fig. The maximum
fresnel number N
N = ± 2λ(a + b − r)

where (A + B − r) is the minimum path length

difference. The sign is positive in the shadow
zone and negative in the bright zone.
• For a simple point source the barrier attenuation is:

Where
Lb = barrier attenuation for a point source (dB).
A,b, r = minimum source to receiver distances over and through
the barrier
(M or ft).
N = maximum fresnel number
Λ = wavelength of the frequency of interest (m or ft),
Kb= barrier constant which is 5 dB for a wall and 8 dB for a
berm.
 PRACTICAL BARRIER CONSTRAINTS
• There are practical limitations to barrier theory. If barriers are not long, the sound can travel
around them. Barrier attenuations can be calculated for each of these paths using eq. And the
resulting levels combined at the receiver location. Reflections from nearby buildings can produce
flanking paths where the sound travels around a barrier.
 BARRIER MATERIALS
• Barriers must be nonporous—that is, they must block the passage of air through them.
• They must have sufficient mass so that the sound traveling through the barrier is significantly less
than the sound diffracting over or around the barrier.
• This consideration leads to the requirement that barriers be built of a material having a total
surface mass density of at least 20kg/sqm.
• They must be weather resistant and properly designed to withstand wind and other structural
loads.
 ROADWAY BARRIERS

• Sound barriers constructed along a roadway

to protect residential areas have become a
common sight in urban areas.
• A row of buildings, one story tall, can
provide some shielding over and above
distance attenuation.
• The amount depends on the percent of
coverage of the line source. For 40% to 65%
coverage, about 3 dB is achieved.
 ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
• Several attenuating mechanisms, over and above those associated with geometrical spreading and
barrier losses, influence the propagation of a sound wave. These are grouped in categoriesas
follows:
1) air attenuation,
2) ground effects,
3) losses due to focusing from wind and thermal gradients,
4) channeling effects.
• Air attenuation is always present, even indoors, and contributes to the acoustics of concert halls as
well as sound propagation outdoors.
• Ground effects occur when the sound grazes at a shallow angle over acoustically soft materials
such as thick grass, plowed ground, fresh snow, or in theaters, padded opera chairs.
• Ground effects are not significant unless there is grazing. Wind and thermal focusing are other
commonly occurring outdoor phenomena.
AIR ATTENUATION

Attenuation of Highway Noise

 AIR ATTENUATION
• The combination of these effects is termed atmospheric attenuation and is made up of
four components.

• All these terms represent different ways in which sound energy is converted into heat or
internal energy of the air, thus reducing the strength of the sound wave.
 ATTENUATION DUE TO GROUND COVER
• Ground attenuation: Is caused by several effects including the losses in propagating through dense
woods or heavy foliage, and the effect of grazing propagation at shallow angles over an acoustically
soft surface such as heavy grass, plowed ground, or new fallen snow.
• Grazing attenuation: Is also present in concert halls and theaters, where sounds, emanating from a
performer on stage, pass over seated patrons or padded opera chairs and induce losses over and
above those expected from geometrical spreading and air absorption alone.
Ground surfaces are grouped according to their acoustical properties as follows:
1. Hard ground: concrete, asphalt, water, ice, or other surfaces having a low porosity such as
compacted earth or rock.
2. Soft ground: grass, plowed earth, dense vegetation, soft snow.
3. Mixed ground: A mixture of hard and soft areas.
• Focusing and refraction effects: The path taken by a sound wave propagating through a conducting
medium such as the air is the one that minimizes the time it takes to get from the source to the receiver.
This physical law is called the principle of least time, and applies to the motion of objects.
 GRAZING ATTENUATION

FOCUSING AND REFRACTION EFFECTS

 TRAFFIC NOISE MODELING
• Traffic noise modeling starts with a determination of the radiated
sound levels of individual vehicles . for this purpose vehicles are
grouped into three categories:
• Automobiles , light trucks, and heavy trucks.
• Both the measured sound pressure level at a known distance,
typically 15 m, and the effective source height are necessary for
each category.
• 1. Automobiles (A) - all vehicles having two axles and four wheels
designed primarily for the transportation of nine or fewer
passengers (automobiles) or the transportation of cargo (light
trucks). The gross vehicle weight is less than 4500 kilograms.
 TRAFFIC NOISE MODELING

.
2 Medium trucks (MT) - All vehicles having two axles and six wheels designed for the transportation
of cargo. The gross vehicle weight is greater than 4500 kilograms but less than 12,000 kilograms.
3. Heavy trucks (HT) - All vehicles having three or more axles and designed for the transportation of
cargo. The gross vehicle weight is greater than 12,000 kilograms.
• The expected noise levels at 15m .
 TRAFFIC NOISE SPECTRA

• Detailed acoustical analyses such as those required for the transmission of sound from the exterior
to the interior of a building are done using the octave-band noise spectrum of a source.
• For traffic noise a composite spectrum is used that depends on the percentage of heavy trucks
present in the vehicle mix. For an individual heavy truck, noise is emitted from the exhaust, engine,
cooling system, and tires.
• These differences can be added to the desired overall a-weighted truck noise level to obtain the
individual octave-band levels.
 RAILROAD NOISE
• The prediction of railway noise is similar to the calculation of traffic noise.
• There are two major sources, locomotive engines and rail cars.
• For purposes of this analysis only line operations will be addressed. (Line operations refer to the
movements of railroad locomotives and freight or passenger cars over a main line or branch line
of tracks.)
• Reference sound levels average 91 dBA at 100 ft.
• Rail car noise levels can be estimated using an empirical formula:
Lr (cars) = 50 + 20 log vm
Where,
Lr (cars) = reference rail car level at 30 m (100 ft) (dBA)
Vm = speed of train (mph = 1.61 kph)
 AIRCRAFT NOISE
• Jet aircrafts produce a lot of noise.
• Jet noise has several distinctive features including a very
strong dependence on the velocity (v) of the flow.
• The frequency spectrum of jet noise is a flat haystack-shaped
curve with the maximum scaled to the diameter (d) of the
exhaust opening.
• The peak occurs at a frequency of = 0.13v/d.
• Thus on the approach side of an airport there is a greater
high-frequency noise component than on the takeoff side.
• For architectural acoustics calculations of aircraft noise, it is
sufficient to obtain the day-night levels from a contour map.
Where the source is a helicopter a typical noise spectrum is Typical Noise Spectra of Light
Piston-Engine Helicopters
shown in fig.
THANK YOU….