Building Services IV

Module I
 Overview
❖ Discussing about the acoustics and sound properties.

❖Analyzing Human ear and its hearing characteristics.

 Acoustics
• The branch of physics concerned with the properties of
sound.
• It is concerned with the production, control, transmission,
reception, and effects of sound.
Acoustics
 Acoustics in architecture
• Movie theatres, Concert halls,
Building Acoustics/Architectural acoustics
• Building acoustics is the science of
controlling noise in buildings.
• This includes the minimization of noise transmission from
one space to another and the control of the characteristics
of sound within spaces themselves.
• Building acoustics are an important consideration in
the design, operation and construction of most buildings, and can have a
significant impact on health and wellbeing, communication
and productivity.
• They can be particularly significant in spaces such as concert halls,
recording studios, lecture theatres, and so on, where
the quality of sound and its intelligibility are very important.
Factors influencing architectural acoustics
• The geometry and volume of a space.
• The sound absorption, transmission and reflection
characteristics of surfaces enclosing the space and within
the space.
• The sound absorption, transmission and reflection
characteristics of materials separating spaces.
• The generation of sound inside or outside the space.
• Airborne sound transmission.
• Impact noise.
Mechanical waves
• These waves need a medium to travel for
their propagation.
• These are again classified into
• Transverse waves
• Longitudinal waves
Electromagnetic waves (EM waves)
• These waves need doesn’t need medium to
travel for their propagation.
• They can travel in vacuum
• Ex: light
 Transverse waves
• In this type of waves the particle vibrates perpendicular to
direction of propagation of wave
Characteristics of transverse waves
• Frequency(f)

– Unit is Hertz(Hz) or 1/second

If n= 1
• velocity of a wave

v=fλ
Longitudinal waves
• It consists of compressions and rarefaction
• Sound is a longitudinal wave and cannot travel
through vacuum.
Longitudinal waves
• It consists of compressions and rarefaction
• Sound is a longitudinal wave and cannot travel
through vacuum.

wavelength
amplitude

compressions rarefactions compressions

Displacement of
air molecules
• In this type of waves the particle vibrates
parallel to direction of propagation of wave
• Compressions are high pressure regions
where particles are close
• rarefactions are low pressure regions where
particles are far apart
 Sound waves
• Sound needs a medium to travel
• Speed of sound in air is 343 m/s

Frequency of
sound waves

< 20 Hz 20 Hz – 20,000 Hz > 20,000 Hz

Infrasonic Audible Ultrasonic

range

Avalanche, earthquake, Dogs, bats,

elephants, whales dolphins
SONAR
Speed of sound
• Speed of sound changes with medium.
• It depends on
– Temperature, Humidity and density
– Does not depend upon pressure

Solids 5000-6000 m/s

Liquids 1500 m/s
Gas 300-500 m/s

Speed of sound in air is 343 m/s

Intensity of Sound(I)

• It is measured in Decibels (dB)

• I = sound intensity

• v = frequency of sound
• A = amplitude of sound wave

• ρ = density of medium in which sound is travelling

• c = Speed f sound
 Reverberation

• Reverberant sound is the collection of all the reflected sounds in an

auditorium.
• Reverberation is the phenomenon of persistence of sound after it has
been stopped as a result of multiple reflections from surfaces such as
furniture, people, air etc. within a closed surface.
• These reflections build up with each reflection and decay gradually as
they are absorbed by the surfaces of objects in the space enclosed.
 Reverberation

• Reverberant sound is the collection of all the reflected sounds in

an closed surface.
 Advantages of Reverberation

• Reverberations do wonders when it comes to musical symphonies

and orchestra halls, when the right amount of reverberation is

present, the sound quality gets enhanced drastically.

• This is the reason why sound engineers are appointed during the

construction of these halls.

 Disadvantages of Reverberation

• If a room has about nearly no any sound absorbing surfaces

like wall, roof and the floor, the sound is said to bounce back
between the surfaces and also it takes a very long time as the
sound dies.
• In such a room, the listener will then have a problem for
registering the speaker. This is because he tends to hears both the
direct sound as well as the repeated reflected sound waves.
 Persistence of audibility

• It is the minimum time interval in which two sound waves are

heard distinctly = 0.1 second

• It is the time with which a sound wave persists on your brain

 Echo
• It is the phenomenon of hearing back the original sound after
reflection from an obstacle

• Minimum distance between a source and obstacle such that an echo

has to be heard = 17 meters
 Doppler effect

• It is produced when there is a relative motion between sound source

and observer.

• The observer hears a variation in the frequency of sound due to this

effect
 Sound Intensity(I)

• Sound intensity is sound power per unit of area.

• It indicates the flow of sound through a specific area.

• Sound intensity is measured in Watts/m2.

• P is the power through an area A.

 Sound Pressure
• Indicates the amplitude level of sound at a specific location in
space, and is a scalar quantity.
• The level is dependent on the location and distance the sound
is observed relative to a sound source.
• Sound pressure is measured in Pascal.

Sound Intensity = (Sound Pressure) x (Particle Velocity)

 Sound Intensity level
• Sound intensity levels are quoted in decibels (dB) much more
often than sound intensities in watts per meter square.
• Decibels are the unit of choice in the scientific literature as
well as in the popular media.
• The reasons for this choice of units are related to how we
perceive sounds.
 Sound Intensity level
• How our ears perceive sound can be more accurately
described by the logarithm of the intensity rather than
directly to the intensity.
• The sound intensity level β in decibels of a sound having an
intensity I in watts per meter squared is defined to be:-

• where I0 = 10−12 W/m2 is a reference intensity.

Sound Intensity levels
Sound Intensity levels