What are …

dB weighting

and

Noise rating?
Acoustics Engineering 1
Decibel you’ve seen before are all …

SPL- in dB
SIL – in dB
SWL- in dB

Now let’s see dB in, such as –

dBm, dBV, dBW and dBk?

Acoustics Engineering 2
Physical quantities in decibel (dB)
dBm Power measurements relative to 1mW

Power measurements relative to 1W. Note that LdBm = LdBW + 30

dBW
W/m2 which is approximately the level of human hearing in air.

dBk Power measurements relative to 1kW.Note that LdBm = LdBk + 60

dBV Voltage measurement relative to 1V – regardless of impedance.

Voltage relative to 0.775V and is derived from a 600 Ω dissipating 0dBm

dBu or dBv
(1mW).

dBµ Electric field strength relative to 1µV per meter.

Energy relative to 1 joule. Used for spectral densities where 1 Joule = 1

dBJ
W/Hz

Acoustics Engineering 3
Physical sound quantities in decibel
(dB)

• dB(A), A-weighted Leq

• dB(B), B-weighted Leq
• dB(C), C-weighted Leq
• dB(D), D-weighted Leq
Leq stands for equivalent continuous sound level.
Leq is the product of SPL measured over certain
period of time.

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Noise weightings: To indicate
nature of sound level
dB(A) Soft , 40 dB and lower

dB(B) Medium, 40 dB and 70 dB

dB(C) Loud, 100 dB

dB(D) Only for aircraft noise -130 dB and higher

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Noise weightings
• Filters in SLM mimic the human’s ear of unequal
sensitivity
• If environmental noise (or community noise) is
concerned weighting of the filter should be
stated, i.e 60 dB(A), Leq (C) = 78 dB, or SPL =
92 dB(A)
• Signal pick up and output depends on acoustic
pressure (Pa)

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Noise weightings (Figure)

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Noise weightings (Table)
Frequency (Hz)
Relative
Response
(dB) 31.25 62.5 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 8000

dB(A) -39.4 -26.2 -16.1 -8.6 -3.2 0 1.2 1 -1.1

dB(B) -17 -9 -4 -1 0 0 0 -1 -3

dB(C) -3 -0.8 -0.2 0 0 0 -0.2 -0.8 -3

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Noise weightings (Table)
Octave band, Center
62.5 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 8000
Frequency (Hz)

Measured Sound
Pressure Level 54 60 64 53 48 43 39 32
(dB)

dB(A) filter
26 16 9 4 0 1 1 -1
(dB)

Resulting Sound
Pressure Level 28 44 55 49 48 44 40 31
in dB(A)

EngineeringToolBox.com

Acoustics Engineering 9
Noise weightings (Adjustment)
Adjustment
Context
(dB(A))
Tones or impulsive noise
-5
readily detectable
Character of sound
Tones or impulsive noise
-2
just detectable
Evening -5
Time of day
Night time -10

Rural and outer suburban

0
areas with little traffic

Suburban areas with

5
infrequent traffic
Suburban areas with
10
medium density traffic
Suburban areas with
some commerce or 10
Neighbourhood industry
Areas with dense traffic
and/or commerce or 15
industry
City or commercial areas
with very dense traffic
20
and/or bordering
industrial areas EngineeringToolBox.com

Industrial areas and/or

25
extremely dense traffic
Acoustics Engineering 10
Where sound comes from?
Or if you don’t like the sound, you’ll call
it noise.
So, where noise comes from?

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Features of sound wave (Review)
• Has amplitude, frequency and period
• Human ears are sensitive to sound in
range 300 Hz to 3 kHz
• Requires medium to propagate
• Propagate according to inverse square law
• Reduction of sound pressure 6 dB over a
double of distance from the source. Note:
The effect is much evident for outdoor
sound
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Threshold of hearing - general
SPL
40 (dB)

30

HEARD
20
Threshold of hearing
UNHEARD
10

65 125 250 500

Frequency (Hz)
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Threshold of hearing - details

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Noise events

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Noise moderator

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Terminology of sound for psychoacoustics

• Phone, phoneme, syllable and syllable nucleus

• Timbre
• Pitch
• Octave
• Loudness
• Sone

* Psychoacoustics is the branch of psychology that deals with the perception of sound and its
physiological effects. A study of how sound affects human ears and his state of mind

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Terminology of sound for
psychoacoustics…Cont.
 Phone – speech sound
 Phoneme – the abstraction of a word, of how a word to be heard.
Phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form
meaningful contrasts between utterances. Eg. A phoneme /k/ is for
the word: cat, kit, skill. Phoneme is administered by IPA
(International Phoneme Alphabet)
 Syllable – A phonological “building block” of words or a unit of
organization for a sequence of speech sounds. Eg. the word water is
made of 2 syllables: wa and ter
 Syllable nucleus – Mostly vowel, and rarely consonants. Eg beet [bit] –
[i], cat [kaet]- [ae], and bed [bεd]- [ε]

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Terminology for psychoacoustics…Cont.

• Timbre: Tone or color of sounds.

• To say the music played has a good
timbre, we can distinguish between bass
from treble or clarinet and saxophone.
• Up (attack) and decay of musical notes
are cues in our ability to recognize
different instruments.

Acoustics Engineering 20
 Terminology for psychoacoustics…Cont.

• Pitch: The quality of a sound governed by the

rate of vibrations producing it; the degree of
highness or lowness of a tone. It is sensation
of low or high in sense of bass and treble, a
perceptual response and it is frequency
dependent, i.e: high C and middle C on piano
sound scale

Acoustics Engineering 21
Equally spaced octave band frequency: 3 dB/octave
dB
15

12

200 400 800 1600 3200

Frequency (Hz)
One-octave: The latter frequency
is twice of the former.
For example: 125 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz,…

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Terminology for psychoacoustics… (Cont)

• Loudness: Perceptual L I
=  
loudness of sound strength in L1  I1 
terms of amplitude [sone],
2
where 1 sone = 40 dB P
• To say sound A is louder than =  
sound B, sound A must have  P1 
more than twice as much Where
physical energy compared to
sound B
 = 0.3 − 0.5
• (Look at equal loudness
contour). I 1 = 1  10−12 W / m 2
• Relation between L [sone], I P1 = 20Pa
[W/m2], P [Pa]
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Equal loudness contours
Threshold of pain

Threshold of hearing

Acoustics Engineering 24
Parameters of sound waves (Review)
• Pressure, p (Pa)
• Intensity, I (W/m2)
• Intensity or local strength of sound, dP/dA
• Power, P (W) equals (I.A) or (J/t)
• Rate of emission, P = dE/dt
• Energy, E (J) equals Pt

Acoustics Engineering 25
Parameters of sound waves (Review)

• In a spring, I = bp2, [where p is

pressure, b (Boltzmann constant in gas
or air) = 1/(ρC), c is speed of sound
and ρ is mass density of the medium]

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Sound/noise
measurement

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Sound level meter (SLM)
• Measurement of sounds that affect human
or of material performance w.r.t. sound
• Measure audible sounds, i.e room noise,
noise from traffic, machinery and aircraft of
frequency 20 Hz to 20 kHz
• Measurement features: SPL (max,
instantaneous, Leq, impact noise) and
RT60

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SLM – Basic Features

I/P O/P

Display
PROCESSOR (Graphics/
Numbers)
DAT Printout

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SLM: Data acquisition
• Averaging of actual sound signal, X(t) (1)
in finite response time (2) over a time
interval, ζ (tau) and (3) not registering full
sound envelope
• Conversion of sound to electrical energy
(AC signals)
• Analog AC signal conversion: AC/DC with
correction factor

Acoustics Engineering 35
SLM: Time weightings
• Slow response and exponential time
constant, ζ = 1.0 s
• Fast response, ζ = 0.125 s
• Impulse response, ζ = 0.035 s
• Max hold: Reads peak value and holds it

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Time weightings – S, F, I

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SLM: Linear Averaging (LA) and
Exponential Averaging (EA)
t
X av (t ) =  X ( y )dy
Where; 1
 t −
X is the amplitude
envelope of sound disturbance
 (t − y ) 
t
X av (t ) =  X ( y ). exp−
1
 dy
Where;  −   
y<t still counts
Ζ (tau) can be varied to register how long
each input continues

Acoustics Engineering 38
SLM: LA and EA
• LA can’t capture all registered or sampled
vibration
• EA is more practical because it takes
sound strength even y<t
• ζ in EA can be varied to capture more
data, i.e greater sampling period

Acoustics Engineering 39
SLM - Calibration
• Requires a piston phone or sound level
calibrator
• Commonly used 1kHz (94dB) or 250Hz
(114dB)
• It is required by the standard to perform
calibration on the SLM before any
measurement commences

Acoustics Engineering 40
Transducer
• Microphone - converting vibrations into electrical
signal
• Loudspeakers (L/S) – converting electrical into
vibrations that create sound
• Mic and L/S are called electro-acoustics
devices/transducer
• Signal pick up and output depends on acoustic
pressure (Pa)

Pre-amp Amplifier

Acoustics Engineering 41
Transducers: M and S
MICROPHONE LOUDSPEAKER

Sensitivity Effectiveness

M S
Vout p(d )
M= S=
p(o) Vin
Voltage induced over Pressure created per
an amount of sound unit distance over an
pressure input voltage
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Specification: microphone

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Specification: loudspeaker

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Specification: microphone

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Transducer: M and S (Cont…)
• M and S are as function of frequency

• To test: Sweep the constant amplitude sine wave over a range of

frequency, i.e 20 Hz to 40 kHz

• Frequency response of of transducer: low frequency, mid-frequency,

high frequency and flat response

• Transducer with flat response means that the output is constant over
a large range of frequency, i.e 200 Hz to 20 kHz. It is also quite
expensive

Acoustics Engineering 46
Noise Rating
• Noise is transferred in building via air borne and
structure borne
• Noise Criteria (NC) – The most basic noise rating for
office and commercial buildings
• Balanced Noise Criteria (NCB) – An extension of NC but
has emphasis (more analysis) on low and high frequency
noise
• Room Criteria (RC) – For the purpose of evaluating the
effect of HVAC equipment, apparatus and system with
regard to noise level in rooms or space in buildings
• Both NCB and RC take into account conditions of rumble
and hissy in the room.

Acoustics Engineering 47
Noise Criteria (NC)
• Developed in US by Dr. Leo Beranek
• To access noise in commercial buildings, but
NOT caused by the occupants
• Analysis of measured background noise in one-
octave center frequency from 63 Hz to 8 kHz
• Preferably, measurement of noise at ear height
• Designed NC should at least 5 dB lower than the
specified NC
• Specify 5 dB below NC rating for hearing
impaired (HI) individuals. (Note: Residual
hearing for HI are at 63 Hz and 125 Hz)

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Recommended criteria for steady background sound
in typical building spaces

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 NC Rating
< NC 35 Very quiet

NC 35 to NC 55 Moderately noisy

NC 55 to NC 65 Very noisy

> NC 65 Extremely noisy

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Room Criteria (RC)
• To evaluate noise in room caused by HVAC
(heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) but
NOT caused by the occupants
• Analysis of measured background noise in
unoccupied room with all the HVAC system ON
• Noise plotted on RC curve is in one-octave
center frequency from 16 Hz to 4 kHz
• An extension of NC rating by adding more
analysis of background noise behavior at low
and high frequency range

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Engineering Noise Control: Theory and Practice by David A. Bies and Colin H. Hansen

Acoustics Engineering 53
 RC: Noise at low and high
frequency
Noise phenomena Example

Rumble Low frequency noise due to

vibrations of floor and
ceiling, wall and fixtures.
Also called bumpy
Hissy High frequency noise due to
air passing through pipe or
an air leakage
Neutral No feel-able and audible
vibrations or hiss
Acoustics Engineering 54
RC: Noise due to vibrations at
low frequency

Shaded area on Definition

RC graph

Clearly “feel-able” and

A audible vibrations
Moderately “feel-able”
B vibrations

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 Determination of NCB and RC

Parameter NCB RC

Measured noise Plot on NC curve the measured noise Plot on RC curve the measured
spectrum spectrum noise spectrum.

Number NCB# = (L500 Hz+L1000 Hz+L2 kHz+L4 kHz)/4 RC# = RCat 1 kHz = (L500 Hz+L1 kHz+L2
= Speech Interference Level (SIL) kHz)/3

Example: NC40, NC49, NC32 Example: RC34, RC52, RC40

-
Best fit Determined according to standard NCB curve
a. NCBBest-fit for rumble = NCB# + 3 dB
b. NCBBest-fit for hiss = (L125+L250+L500)/3
(of measured noise spectrum)

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 Analysis: NCB and RC
Parameter NCB
Rumble From the NCB Best-fit for rumble
curve, check level of measured
noise spectrum in the room whether
it exceeds the curve at frequency
500 Hz and lower. If there is
excess, the noise in the room is
considered rumble.
Hiss From the NCB Best-fit for hiss curve,
check level of measured noise
spectrum in the room whether it
exceeds the curve at frequency
1 kHz and above. If there is excess,
the noise in the room is considered
hissy.
Reporting For instance: NC43 (N), NC76 (H,
(To be written on top-middle of A), NC60 (A, B, R)
noise curve graph)
Acoustics Engineering
RC
From frequency 500 kHz and lower,
draw a curve (RC# + 5 dB)
perpendicular to RC standard curve.
Check measured noise spectrum in
room at frequency 500 Hz and
below. If there is excess, the noise
in the room is considered rumble.
From frequency 1 kHz and above,
draw a curve (RC# + 3 dB)
perpendicular to RC standard curve.
Check measured noise spectrum in
room at frequency 1000 Hz and
above. If there is excess, the noise
in the room is considered hissy.
For instance: RC40 (N), RC46 (H),
RC60 (A, B, R)
57
NCB: Determination of frequency of measured noise
spectrum for rumble (the highest) and hissy (the
lowest) (Beranek, 1989)*

*Source: Beranek, L. (1989). Balanced noise-criterion (NCB) curves,. Journal Acoustical Society of America. Vol. 86 (2). 650-664.
Acoustics Engineering 58
RC: Determination of frequency of measured noise
spectrum for rumble (the highest) and hissy (the
lowest) (Tocci, 2000)*

*Source: Tocci, G. C. (2000). Room Noise Criteria—The State of the Art in the Year 2000. Cavanaugh Tocci Associates, Boston USA.

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Thank You

Acoustics Engineering 60