Contents

• Fundamentals of noise Sound concepts, Decibel

Level, white noise, weighted sound pressure level,
Logarithmic addition, subtraction and averaging,
sound intensity, noise measurement, sound fields,
octave band, sound reflection, absorption and
transmission, acoustic material & its
characteristics, Noise control at the Source, along
the path and at the receiver, pass-by-noise,
Reverberation chamber, Anechoic Chamber,
Human Exposure to Noise and Noise standards.
Frequency Range of Different Sound Sources

Frequency
1 10 100 1000 10 000 [Hz]
Audible Range

Frequency
1 10 100 1000 10 000 [Hz]
Addition of sound levels
 Addition of sound levels

n
Lp  10log10[10 ( Lpn/10)
], dB
n1

If ; Lp1  90; Lp2  95and; Lp3  88dB

( Lp1/10) ( Lp 2/10) ( Lp3/10)
Lp  10log10[10 10 10 ]
Lp  96.80dB
 Substraction of sound levels

Lp  Lp1 Lp2
If ; Lp1  90; Lp2  86dB
( Lp1/10) ( Lp 2/10)
Lp  10log10[10 10 ]dB
Lp  87.79dB
Wavelength
Wavelength,  [m]

Speed of sound, c = 344 m/s

Wavelength and Frequency

c

f



Wavelength,  [m]
20 10 5 2 1 0.2 0.1 0.05

10 20 50 100 200 500 1k 2k 5k 10 k

Frequency, f [Hz]
Waveforms and Frequencies
p Lp

time

p Lp Frequency

time

Lp Frequency
p

time

Frequency
Typical Sound and Noise Signals
p Lp

time

p Lp Frequency

time

Lp Frequency
p

time

Frequency
Filters
p Lp

Time

Frequency
p Lp

RMS
Time Peak

Fast
Slow Frequency
Impulse
 Octave band
• An octave band is a frequency band with
upper and lower cutoff frequencies having a
ratio of 2.
• The cut off frequencies of 705 HZ and 1410 HZ
define an octave band, whose band centre
frequency is 1000 HZ and would be referred to
as the 1000 HZ octave band.
1/1 and 1/3 Octave Filters
L
B = 1/1 Octave
1/1 Octave

f2  2  f1
Frequency B  0 .7  f0  70%
f1 = 705 f2 = 1410 [Hz]
f0 = 1000

L
B = 1/3 Octave 1/3 Octave

f2  3
2  f1  1.25  f1
B  0 .23  f0  23%
Frequency
f1 = 891 f2 = 1120 [Hz]
f0 = 1000
3 × 1/3 Oct. = 1/1 Oct.
L B = 1/1 Octave

Frequency
500 1000 2000 [Hz]

L B = 1/3 Octave

Frequency
800 1000 1250 [Hz]

The noise produced by most sources of community noise, such as automobiles

or aircraft engines, are examples of aperiodic sounds. Such sounds cannot be
subdivided into sets of harmonically related pure tones but can be described in
terms of components extending over finite frequency bands. Such frequency
analysis are often done in bands of octaves or 1/3 octaves.
The Spectrogram

1/1 Octave
L

1/3 Octave

Frequency
[Hz]
 Frequency analysers
1. Constant band width analyser and

2. Constant percentage bandwidth analyser.

In the constant bandwidth analyser the filter bandwidth is kept constant

throughout the frequency range while in the constant percentage
bandwidth analyser, the bandwidth is proportional to the centre frequencies.

• The constant percentage bandwidth analyser is widely used.

• The nine preferred centre frequencies for noise level measurement are 31.5,
63, 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000 and 8000 HZ.