ASSIGNMENT 2

QUE 1.-What do you understand by Acoustical Defects & Their remedies.

Explain with the help of appropriate sketches.

Acoustical defects in buildings are just as important to recognize, diagnose

and remedy as common building defects. Both types of defects occur in
buildings for similar reasons and these range from design and constructional
errors to the breakdown of building materials or elements.
List of acoustical defects
 1. Reverberation.
 2. Formations of echoes.
 3. Sound foci.
 4. Dead spots.
 5. Insufficient loudness.

Reverberation
1. Reverberation is the persistence of sound in the enclosed space , after the
source of sound has stopped.

2. Reverberant sound is the reflected sound , as a result of improper

absorption.
3. Reverberation may results in confusion with the sound created next.
4. However some reverberation is essential for improving quality sound.
5. The time during which the sound persists is called the reverberation time
of sound in the hall.
6. As per Prof. W .C. Sabins reverberation time ‘t’ is given by formula :-
t= 0.16V /A where V=volume of room in cubic meters
A= total absorbing power of all the surfaces of room/ hall.
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. They may be opened or closed to
obtain optimum reverberation time.

Formations of echoes.
Echo's
Not all sound that hits matter is absorbed. Some of it is reflected. That
means sound bounces off the solid matter the way a tennis ball bounces off
a wall. Sound reflected back to its source is an echo.
An echo is produced when the reflected sound wave reaches the ear just when
the original sound from the same source has been already heard.
Thus there is repetition of sound.
The sensation of sound persists for 1/10th of a second after the source has
ceased.

Thus an echo must reach after 1/10th second of the direct sound
Multiple echoes may be heard when a sound is reflected from a number of
reflecting surfaces placed suitably.
This defect can be removed by selecting proper shape of the hall .
And by providing rough and porous interior surfaces to disperse the energy of
echoes.
Remedies
This defect is avoided by selecting proper shape for the auditorium. Use of
splayed side walls instead of parallel walls greatly reduces the problem and
enhance the acoustical quality of the hall.
Echoes may be avoided by covering the opposite walls and high ceiling with
absorptive material.

Sound foci.
Some times shape of the hall makes sound waves to concentrate in some
particular areas of hall creating a sound of large quality.
These spots are called sound foci.
This defect can be removed by Geometrical design shapes of the interior faces.
Providing highly absorbent materials on critical areas (curved spaces).
Dead spots.
This defect is the out come of formation of sound foci.
Because of high concentration of reflected sound at sound foci , there is
deficiency of related sound at some other points.
These spots are known as dead spots where sound intensity is so low that it is
insufficient for hearing.
This defect can be removed by suitably placing diffusers and reflectors.
Right proportions of internal spaces.

Geometrical shape of roof helps in proper distribution of sound

Que 2- Briefly write about acoustic reflection, diffusion, diffraction.

REFLECTION-An acoustic travelling wave can be reflected by a solid
surface. If a travelling wave is reflected, the reflected wave can interfere
with the incident wave causing a standing wave in the near field. As a
consequence, the local pressure in the near field is doubled, and the
particle velocity becomes zero.

Attenuation causes the reflected wave to decrease in power as distance

from the reflective material increases. As the power of the reflective wave
decreases compared to the power of the incident wave, interference also
decreases. And as interference decreases, so does the phase difference
between sound pressure and particle velocity. At a large enough distance
from the reflective material, there is no interference left anymore. At this
distance one can speak of the far field.

The amount of reflection is given by the reflection coefficient which is the

ratio of the reflected intensity over the incident intensity

DIFFUSION-Diffusion in simple terms is the scattering of sound energy.

When sound bounces off hard flat surfaces, the energy remains very much
intact yielding discrete echoes. These echoes will produce destructive
effects like comb filtering, standing waves and flutter echoes which
degrade speech intelligibility and music clarity. Installing sound
diffusers can deal with this problem. Diffusers interrupt discrete echoes by
scattering or diffusing sound energy over a wide area without removing it
from the room. This maintains sound clarity and improves speech
intelligibility.

Diffusion is the method of spreading out sound energy with a diffusor

(diffuser) for better sound in a space. However, in the wide, wide world of
acoustics, the sound diffusion process and tools are widely misunderstood,
even by some acoustics professionals. This seems a bit odd, because it’s
one of only two tools in our “Better Sounding Room” toolbox.

DIFFRACTION-Diffraction refers to various phenomena that occur when

a wave encounters an obstacle or a slit. It is defined as the bending of
waves around the corners of an obstacle or through an aperture into the
region of geometrical shadow of the obstacle/aperture. The diffracting
object or aperture effectively becomes a secondary source of the
propagating wave.

Diffraction of Sound. Diffraction: the bending of waves around small*

obstacles and the spreading out of waves beyond small* openings. ... You
may perceive diffraction to have a dual nature, since the same
phenomenon which causes waves to bend around obstacles causes themto
spread outpast small openings.

Que 3- Write short notes on

1)Frequency range of audible sounds
An audio frequency or audible frequency (abbreviation: AF) is
a periodic vibration whose frequency is in the band audible to the average
human, the human hearing range. The SI unit of frequency is the hertz (Hz).
It is the property of sound that most determines pitch.[1]

The generally accepted standard hearing range for humans is 20 to

20,000 Hz.[2][3][4] In air at atmospheric pressure, these represent sound
waves with wavelengths of 17 meters (56 ft) to 1.7 centimetres (0.67 in).
Frequencies below 20 Hz are generally felt rather than heard, assuming
the amplitude of the vibration is great enough. High frequencies are the
first to be affected by hearing loss due to age or prolonged exposure to very
loud noises.

2) Sound Transmission
Sound waves are pressure waves that travel through Earth's crust,
water bodies, and atmosphere. Natural sound frequencies specify the
frequency attributes of sound waves that will efficiently induce vibration in
a body (e.g., the tympanic membrane of the ear) or that naturally result
from the vibration of that body.

Sound waves are created by a disturbance that then propagates through a

medium (e.g., crust, water, air). Individual particles are not transmitted with
the wave, but the propagation of the wave causes particles (e.g., individual
air molecules) to oscillate about an equilibrium position

3) Reverberation of sound

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.

It is same as the echo, but the distance between source of sound and also
the obstacle through which it gets reflected is more less in case of this
reverberation. The quantitative characterization of the reverberation is
mainly done by using of the parameter called as reverberation time.
Reverberation time is usually defined as length of the time where the sound
decays by about 60 decibels starting from the initial level. In the process of
reverberation, the time delay is said to be not less than 0.1 second i.e. the
reflected form of wave reaches to the observer in more or less than 0.1
second. Hence this delay in perception of the sound and also the original
sound is said to be very less and whereas the original sound will be still in
the memory when this reflected sound is heard.

RAJ MAHESHWARI
7TH SEM