CHAPTER FIVE

BUILDING ACOUSITCS

Prepared By – Milat Kiflu

March 2021
 Table of Contents
1. Factors Affecting Acoustics of Buildings...................................................................................2
2. Reverberation Time....................................................................................................................2
3. Loudness.....................................................................................................................................3
4. Focusing......................................................................................................................................4
5. Echoes.........................................................................................................................................5
6. Echelon effect.............................................................................................................................7
7. Resonance...................................................................................................................................7
8. Acoustical creep..........................................................................................................................8
9. Acoustic shadowing....................................................................................................................9
10. Noise.........................................................................................................................................9
11. A room with good acoustics....................................................................................................10

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 CHAPTER FIVE
BUILDING ACOUSTICS
1. Factors Affecting Acoustics of Buildings
(1) Reverberation Time
(2) Loudness
(3) Focusing
(4) Echoes
(5) Echelon effect
(6) Resonance
(7) Acoustical creep
(8) Acoustic shadowing
(9) Noise
2. Reverberation Time
 If a hall is to be acoustically satisfactory, it must have the right reverberation time.
 The reverberation time should be neither too long nor too short.

 A very short reverberation time makes a room `dead’. On the other hand, a long
reverberation time renders speech unintelligible.
 The optimum value for reverberation time depends on the purpose for which a hall is
designed.
Remedies
 The reverberation time can be controlled by the suitable choice of building materials and
furnishing materials.
 Since open windows allow the sound energy to flow out of the hall, there should be a
limited number of windows opened or closed to obtain optimum reverberation time.
 Cardboard sheets, perforated sheets, felt, heavy curtains, thick carpets, etc. are used to
increase wall and floor surface absorption.

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  Therefore, the walls are to be provided with absorptive materials to the required extent and
at suitable places.

 Heavy fold curtains may be used to increase the absorption.

 Covering the floor with carpet also increases absorption.
 The audience also contributes to the absorption of sound. The absorption coefficient of
an individual is about 0.44 Sabin's.
 To compensate for an increase in the reverberation time due to an unexpected decrease
in audience strength, upholstered seats are to be provided in the hall.

 Absorption due to an upholstered chair is equivalent to that of an individual.

3. Loudness
 Caused by the long mean free path between reflective surfaces and large geometric
volume.
 Sufficient loudness at every point in the hall is an important factor for satisfactory hearing.

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  Excessive absorption in the hall or lack of reflecting surfaces near the sound source may
lead to a decrease in the loudness of the sound.
 Excessive reverberance muddles (disorders) speech and excessive loudness can elevate the
sound level.
 In an elementary school cafeteria to values that, were people exposed for more of the day,
might damage human hearing.
 Each of these defects is caused by surfaces that are too reflective, and each is remedied by
the addition of absorption.
Remedies
 A hard reflecting surface positioned near the sound source improves the loudness.

 Low ceilings are also of help in reflecting the sound energy towards the audience.

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  Adjusting the absorptive material in the hall will improve the situation.
 When the hall is large and the audience more, loudspeakers are to be installed to obtain
the desired level of loudness.
4. Focusing
 Reflecting concave surfaces cause concentration of reflected sound, creating a sound of
larger intensity at the focal point. These spots are known as sound foci.
 Such concentrations of sound intensity at some points lead to a deficiency of reflected
sound at other points.

 The spots of sound deficiency are known as dead spots. The sound intensity will be low at
dead spots and inadequate hearing.
 Further, if there are highly reflecting parallel surfaces in the hall, the reflected and direct
sound waves may form standing waves which leads to uneven distribution of sound in the
hall.

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Remedies
 The sound foci and dead spots may be eliminated if curvilinear interiors are avoided if
such surfaces are present, they should be covered by highly absorptive materials.
 Suitable sound diffusers are to be installed in the hall to cause even distribution of sound
in the hall.
 A paraboloidal reflecting surface arranged with the speaker at its focus helps direct a
uniform reflected beam of sound in the hall.
 Avoid concave curved surfaces, whether on the rear wall of a theatre or a dome of a lobby
that will hold music performances.
5. Echoes
 When the walls of the hall are parallel, hard, and separated by about 34m distance, echoes
are formed. Curved smooth surfaces of walls also produce echoes.

Remedies
 This defect is avoided by;
o selecting the proper shape for the auditorium.
o The use of splayed side walls instead of parallel walls greatly reduces the problem and
enhances the acoustical quality of the hall.
o covering the opposite walls and high ceiling with absorptive material.

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6. Echelon effect
 If a hall has a flight of steps, with equal width, the sound waves reflected from them will
consist of echoes with a regular phase difference.
 These echoes combine to produce a musical note which will be heard along with the direct
sound. This is called the echelon effect.
 It makes the original sound unintelligible or confusing.
Remedies

 It may be remedied by having steps of unequal width.

 The steps may be covered with proper sound-absorbing materials, for example with a
carpet.

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7. Resonance
 Sound waves are capable of setting physical vibration in surrounding objects, such as
window panes, walls, enclosed air, etc.
 The vibrating objects in turn produce sound waves. The frequency of the forced vibration
may match some frequency of the sound produced and hence result in a resonance
phenomenon.
 Due to the resonance, certain tones of the original music may get reinforced which may
result in distortion of the original sound.

 Caused when:
o room dimension equal to the multiple of half-wavelength
o in small rooms with parallel sound-reflecting surfaces
o and low-frequency sound source
 Low‐frequency spatial peculiarities like resonance are difficult to precisely predict, but
they can be rendered less likely to occur through proper design.
 Low‐frequency sound wavelengths have dimensions on the order of the dimensions of a
room, so at those tones, standing waves and phase cancellations may form. As the waves
bounce back and forth along the same path, tracing and retracing, high sound pressure (at
a particular frequency) builds up in some locations, while nulls with pressures equal to the
atmospheric pressure appear in other spots.
 Resonance presents particular problems in small rooms for music that have sound‐
reflective parallel walls (for instance, in music practice rooms).
 The frequencies affected vary with the distances between room walls, but playing a pure
tone on the order of 100 Hz might reveal spots in the room that are unusually loud, and
other spots (sometimes only two feet from the loudspeaker source) where the sound seems
to disappear.
Remedies
 The vibrations of bodies may be suitably damped to eliminate resonance due to them by
proper maintenance and selection.

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  It can be avoided by applying the surfaces in both plans and sections so that they are not
parallel or providing absorption at least on one face of parallel surfaces to limit the
strength of reflection.
8. Acoustical creep
 Sound rays leapfrog(Jump) one another, crisscrossing paths along with the chords of the
arc, and converge on the other side, where those early-arriving reflections heighten
loudness and intelligibility.

 Sound creep produces the whispering galleries of old domed government buildings,
where even quiet speech can be heard at a great distance (provided both the listeners and
speakers are standing just so).
 Again, sound‐reflective concave curves are to blame.
 This is not a sign of excellent acoustics, but rather an unwanted effect, peculiar to only a
few spots in a room.

9. Acoustic shadowing
 If a room element or surface obscures another area, we say the receiver locations affected
lie in the acoustical shadow of the source.
 In auditoria, shadowing is most associated with overly deep balconies that block sound
reflections from a portion of the solid subtended angle of view.

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10. Noise
 Noise is an unwanted sound that masks the satisfactory hearing of speech and music.
 There are mainly three types of noises that are to be minimized.
 They are;
i. air-borne noise,
ii. structure-borne noise, and
iii. internal noise.
i. air-borne noise
 The noise that comes into a building through the air from distant sources is called air-
borne noise.
 A part of it directly enters the hall through the open windows, doors, or other openings
while another part enters by transmission through walls and floors.
Remedies
 The building may be located on quiet sites away from heavy traffic, market places, railway
stations, airports, etc.
 They may be shaded from noise by interposing a buffer zone of trees, gardens, etc.
ii. structure-borne noise
 The noise which comes from impact sources on the structural extents of the building is
known- as the structure-borne noise.
 It is directly transmitted to the building by vibrations in the structure.
 The common sources of this type of noise are foot-steps, moving of furniture, operating
machinery, etc.
Remedies
 The problem due to machinery and domestic appliances can be overcome by placing
vibration isolators between machines and their supports.
 Cavity walls, compound walls may be used to increase the noise transmission loss.
iii. internal noise

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  Internal noise is the noise produced in the hall or office etc.
 They are produced by air conditioners, movement of people, etc.
Remedies
 The walls, floors, and ceilings may be provided with enough sound-absorbing materials.
 The gadgets or machinery should be placed on sound absorbent material.
11. A room with good acoustics
Requirements
 Well balanced RT
 Low background noise and loud wanted to sound.
 Well diffused sound field
 No acoustic distortions
A room, we're listening to some sound is an important function is said to have ‘good
acoustics’ if the following conditions are satisfied:
1) RT is appropriate for the purpose and well balanced across the audible frequencies.
2) any background noise is low enough and the wanted sound is loud enough for it to be
audible, intelligible, enjoyable, and free of disturbance.
3) the sound field is well diffused, free of deaf spots and loud zones.
4) there are no echoes, flutter echoes, standing waves, or other acoustic distortions.

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