 Acoustics is the branch of physics that deals with the

study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and

solids including topics such
as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound
 Hearing is one of the most crucial means of survival in
the animal world, and speech is one of the most
distinctive characteristics of human development and
culture. Accordingly, the science of acoustics spreads
across many facets of human society music, medicine,
architecture, industrial production, warfare and more.
Likewise, animal species such as songbirds and frogs
use sound and hearing as a key element of mating
rituals or marking territories.
 Science of sound, including its production,
transmission, and effects, including biological and
psychological effects.
 Those qualities of a room that, together, determine its
character with respect to auditory effects."
 The study of acoustics revolves around the generation,
propagation and reception of mechanical waves and
vibrations.
Architectural acoustics

INTRODUCTION
 Sound can be described as a
disturbance or turbulence which
passes through a physical
medium in the form of
longitudinal waves from a
source to a receiver causing a
sensation of hearing.
 This medium could be solid,
fluid or gas.
 The speed of sound through
these different media differs due
to their molecular composition.
Physical Properties of Sound

 Wavelength of sound – This the distance between two pressure

peaks or valleys, measured in metres (m) and represented with the
Greek alphabet ‘l’ (lambda).
 Period – This is the time taken for on complete oscillation. This is
measured in seconds(s) and represented with the letter ‘T’.
 Frequency – This is the number of oscillations per second. This is
represented with ‘f’ and measured in Hertz (Hz).
 Velocity of sound – This is the rate at which a sound wave travels
from a source through a medium to the receiver. The unit is m/s.
 Amplitude – This is the distance between a crest (the highest point)
and a valley (the lowest point)
 Pitch – it is the highness or lowness of a tone determined by the
rapidity of the oscillations producing it.
 A sound unit is any acoustic unit of sound measurement.
 dB, decibel - noise of sound measurement is called decibels
(dB). Ratio of the sound pressure to reference pressure to
something.
 sone - a unit of perceived loudness equal to the loudness of a
1000-hertz tone at 40 dB above threshold, starting with 1
sone.
 phon - a unit of subjective loudness.
 Hz, hertz = unit of sound frequency is called hertz (Hz)
 Sound intensity also known as acoustic intensity is defined
as the power carried by sound waves per unit area in a
direction perpendicular to that area.
 The SI unit of intensity, which includes sound intensity, is
the watt per square meter (W/m2). One application is the noise
measurement of sound intensity in the air at a listener's
location as a sound energy quantity.
 Sound intensity is not the same physical quantity as sound
pressure. Hearing is directly sensitive to sound pressure which
is related to sound intensity.
 In consumer audio electronics, the level differences are called
"intensity" differences, but sound intensity is a specifically
defined quantity and cannot be sensed by a simple
microphone.
 The rate at which sound energy passes through a unit area held
perpendicular to the direction of propagation of sound waves
 Sound intensity, denoted I, is
defined by
 I= pv
 p is the sound pressure;
 v is the particle velocity.
 Both I and v are vectors,
which means that both have
a direction as well as a
magnitude. The direction of
sound intensity is the average
direction in which energy is
flowing.
 The average sound intensity
during time T is given by
 The decibel ( dB) is used to measure sound level, but it is also
widely used in electronics, signals and communication. The dB is a
logarithmic way of describing a ratio. The ratio may be power, sound
pressure, voltage or intensity or several other things. ... 10 log (P2/P1)
= 10 log 2 = 3 dB.
 The Decibel Scale
 An explanation of the decibel scale and related units for measuring
sound and loudness.
 Decibels (dB)
 The ear has the remarkable ability to handle an enormous range of
sound levels. In order to express levels of sound meaningfully in
numbers that are more manageable, a logarithmic scale is used, rather
than a linear one. This scale is the decibel scale .
 What is a decibel?
 Zero decibels (0 dB) is the quietest sound audible to a healthy human
ear. From there, every increase of 3 dB represents a doubling of
sound intensity, or acoustic power.
 Loudness and Sound Intensity (Power)
 The relative loudness that we perceive is a subjective psychological
phenomenon, not something that can be objectively measured.
 Most of us perceive one sound to be twice as loud as another one when
they are about 10 dB apart; for instance, a 60-dB air conditioner will
sound twice as loud as a 50-dB refrigerator. Yet that 10-dB difference
represents a tenfold increase in intensity.
 A 70-dB dishwasher will sound about four times as loud as the 50-dB
refrigerator, but in terms of acoustic intensity, the sound it makes is 100
times as powerful.
 If the sound from one typewriter registers 60 dB, then ten typewriters
clacking away would register 70 dB (not 600 dB!), and they would sound
only twice as loud as one typewriter. You would need 100 typewriters to
reach a noise level of 80 dB, and together they would sound only four
times as loud as a single typewriter.
 Sound Level Sound Intensity (Power)Perceived Loudness60 dB1x1y70
dB10x2y80 dB100x4yThe potential for a sound to damage our hearing is
proportional to its intensity, not its loudness.
 Phons and Sones
 The phon is a non-standard noise unit that is designed to
reflect perceived loudness, and is based on psychoacoustic
experiments in which volunteers were asked to adjust the
decibel level of a reference tone of 1 kHz until it was the same
loudness as the signal being measured. So for example, if a
sound is 70 phons, that means it sounds as loud as a 70-dB, 1-
kHz tone. The dBA scale is now widely used instead of phons.
 The sone is another non-standard, psychoacoustic unit of
loudness. By definition, 1 sone = 40 phons, and from there
upward, the sone measurement doubles for every increase of
10 phons:
 Measuring Sound Levels
 A sound level meter is the instrument normally used to
measure noise levels on the decibel scale. Several factors
affect the noise level reading:
 The distance between the meter and the source of the sound
 The direction the noise source is facing, relative to the meter
 Whether the measurement is taken outdoors (where noise can
dissipate) or indoors (where noise can reverberate)
 For a reported sound level value to be most useful, it is
necessary to specify the conditions under which the reading
was taken, especially the distance from the source.
 The voiced speech of a typical adult male will have
a fundamental frequency from 85 to 180 Hz, and that of a
typical adult female from 165 to 255 Hz. Thus, the
fundamental frequency of most speech falls below the bottom
of the "voice frequency" band as defined above. However,
enough of the harmonic series will be present for the missing
fundamental to create the impression of hearing the
fundamental tone.
 An audio frequency (abbreviation: AF) or audible frequency is
characterized as a periodic vibration whose frequency is
audible to the average human. The SI unit of audio frequency
is the hertz (Hz). It is the property of sound that most
determines pitch.
 The generally accepted standard range of audible frequencies
is 20 to 20,000 Hz, although the range of frequencies
individuals hear is greatly influenced by environmental
factors.
 Frequencies below 20 Hz are generally felt rather than heard,
assuming the amplitude of the vibration is great enough.
 Frequencies above 20,000 Hz can sometimes be sensed by
young people. High frequencies are the first to be affected
by hearing loss due to age and/or prolonged exposure to very
loud noises.
 A frequency of 1 Hz means
one wave cycle per second.
 A frequency of 10
Hz means ten wave cycles
per second, where the
cycles are much shorter and
closer together.
 The note A which is above
Middle C (more on this
later) has a frequency
of 440 Hz. It is often used
as a reference frequency for
tuning musical instruments.
 Reverberation is the collection of reflected sounds from the
surfaces in an enclosure like an auditorium. It is a desirable
property of auditoriums to the extent that it helps to overcome
the inverse square law dropoff of sound intensity in the
enclosure.

 Reverberation, in psychoacoustics and acoustics, is a

persistence of sound after the sound is produced.
 A reverberation, or reverb, is created when a sound or signal
is reflected causing a large number of reflections to build up
and then decay as the sound is absorbed by the surfaces of
objects in the space – which could include furniture, people,
and air.
 Reverberation Time
 The reverberant sound in an auditorium dies away with time as
the sound energy is absorbed by multiple interactions with the
surfaces of the room.
 In a more reflective room, it will take longer for the sound to
die away and the room is said to be 'live'. In a very absorbent
room, the sound will die away quickly and the room will be
described as acoustically 'dead'.
 But the time for reverberation to completely die away will
depend upon how loud the sound was to begin with, and will
also depend upon the acuity of the hearing of the observer.
 In order to provide a reproducible parameter, a standard
reverberation time has been defined as the time for the sound to
die away to a level 60 decibels below its original level. The
reverberation time can be modeled to permit an approximate
calculation. .
 How to measure reverberation time?
 Reverberation time is defined as the length of time required for
sound to decay 60 decibels from its initial level. Classrooms
should have reverberation times in the range of 0.4-0.6 seconds,
but many existing classrooms have reverberation times of 1
second or more. In such cases, the teacher is competing against
the lingering reflections of his or her own voice for the
student's attention. The result is a chaotic jumble of sounds.
 There are two ways to determine reverberation time: 1) to
measure it with a meter or 2) to estimate it. If you want to
actually measure reverberation time, you'll need to hire
an acoustical consultant. But, you can make a fairly simple
estimate for the classrooms you suspect are problems. The
following section from the booklet Classroom Acoustics
describes the procedure.

 Don't be intimidated by the math. If you don't understand the

procedure, someone at your school or high school math
department should be able to do the calculations for you if you
take the room measurements described below (the following is
from Classroom Acoustics I):
 REVERBERATION TIME
 Over 100 years ago, a Harvard physics professor named Wallace
Clement Sabine developed the first equation for reverberation time,
which has since been named after him and is still used today.
Reverberation time is defined as the length of time required for
sound to decay 60 dB from its initial level. Sabine’s simple formula
is:
 where:RT(60) = reverberation time (sec)
V = room volume (ft3 )
S = surface area (ft 2 )
a = absorption coefficient of material(s) at given frequency
S indicates the summation of S times ? for all room surfacesTo use
this formula, the volume of the room, surface area of each material
in the room, and absorption coefficients for those materials must be
known. Absorption coefficients are measured in specialized
laboratories, and represent the fraction of sound energy (not sound
level-dB) the material will absorb as a decimal from 0 to 1. Figure
15 gives absorption coefficients for common classroom materials.
 A commonly used one-number rating called NRC, Noise
Reduction Coefficient, is simply the average of the
absorption coefficients at 250, 500, 1000, and 2000 Hz.
 This simple, one-number rating can be useful for comparing
the relative absorption of two materials; however, examining
absorption coefficients in each octave band gives a better idea
of the performance of a material at various frequencies.
 Reverberation time is often calculated with the room
unoccupied.
 Since people and their clothing provide additional sound
absorption, an unoccupied room is the worst-case scenario,
though not an unreasonable one, since occupancy of most
classrooms varies.
 In a complete analysis, this calculation should be performed
for each octave band, as the RT can vary widely at different
frequencies.
 However, for a quick estimate, the RT of a classroom can be
calculated for just one octave band representative of speech
frequencies, such as 1000 Hz. If this RT is acceptable, then the
RT throughout the speech range will likely be acceptable.
 To demonstrate the use of the
Sabine equation, Figure 16
provides an example calculation
of the RT at 500 Hz for the
acoustically poor classroom
example given in Figure 10a.
 Try calculating the RT at 500 Hz
of the acoustically satisfactory
classroom in Figure 10b with
only a sound-absorbing ceiling
added.
 Note that the ceiling is lower in
that example, so the volume and
surface areas will change. The RT
of the satisfactory classroom is
approximately 0.4 seconds.
 We define the reverberation time T as the time the sound
intensity takes to decay to one millionth of its original steady-
state intensity. This is the time taken the sound level to decay
by 10 log(1,000,000)= 60 db
 To calculate T, consider a room with a hole in one wall of area
A. Call the reverberation time T.
 T ˜ volume V, 1/A
 T= K V/A
 It has been worked out that, for V in ft3 , A in ft2
 T= 0.049 V/A
 The constant is 0.16 if metric (SI) units are used.
 now replace the open window area with an absorbing material
of area S and absorption coefficient a. Then A= Sa. If there is
more than one type of absorbing material, the A= S1 a1+S2a2
+S3a3+…
 If you prefer, we can write
 T= 0.049 V/(ΣSi ai )
 “area” A the “total room absorption”, measured in sabins
(same unit as area, but a somewhat different meaning)
 To calculate T, we need to calculate the total room absorption-
from the walls, floor, ceiling, furniture, drapes, people, etc.
 An empty room with totally reflecting walls, ceiling, floors,
etc. has a
 a) shorter T than one (empty) of comparable dimensions with
perfectly absorbing walls, ceiling, floors, etc.
 b) shorter T than one(empty) of comparable dimensions with
open windows
 c) shorter T than one (empty) of comparable dimensions with
no windows and with carpets covering the walls
 d) a longer T than one of comparable dimensions with
perfectly reflecting walls , but with people inside.
 Examples of Reverberation Times One way to respond to the
question "What is a good range of reverberation times for
concert halls?" is to give examples of some of the most
famous halls in the world.
 For the overall average reverberation times:
 Vienna, Musikvereinsaal : 2.05 seconds
 Boston, Symphony Hall: 1.8 seconds
 New York, Carnegie Hall: 1.7 seconds
 But the overall average reverberation time does not tell the
whole story. The variation of reverberation time with
frequency is also important.
Ideal Reverberation Times
Acoustical Design Problems

 1. Focusing of sound
 2. Echoes
 3. Shadows
 4. Resonances
 5. External noise
 6.Double-valued T
 Focusing of Sound
 Occurs with use of parabolic surfaces either behind
performers or at rear of auditorium
 Echoes
 Highly reflective flat or parabolic wall shapes Flutter echos
from parallel walls Standing waves between parallel walls
 Resonances
 Rectangular practice rooms Parallel walls (flutter) Singing
in the shower
 Double-valued T
 Playback room with reverberation Concert halls with side
areas
Auditorium Design
 General Design Considerations
 1.Visual
 2.Ventilation
 3.Acoustical
 a. seating
 b. stage
 c. room shape
 d. room walls
 T = 0.050 V / A Where:
 T = reverberation time in seconds
 V = room volume in cubic feet
 A = total room absorption in sabins
 CEILING
 To avoid potential flutter echo, a smooth ceiling should not
be parallel to the floor.
 In many halls, the ceiling geometry itself is designed to
direct sound to the rear of the hall, or to diffuse it
throughout the hall
 Concave surfaces such as domes, barreled ceilings, and
cylindrical arches should be avoided because of the
undesirable sound foci they create.
 WALL
 The rear wall must avoid any large, unbroken concave
geometry.
 Side walls must avoid parallelism. This can be avoided by
tilting or splaying wall surfaces.
 These angles can also be advantageously used to direct
reflected sound to the audience seating area, and to provide
diffusion.
 The audience seating area, and to provide diffusion.
 Any surface that unavoidably introduces concave geometry
or an undesirable angle should be covered with absorptive
material.
 FLOOR
 In halls designed for either music or speech, a sloping
(raked) floor is desirable especially for large halls.
 In halls designed for either music or speech, a sloping
(raked) floor is desirable especially for large halls.
 A sloping floor improves sight lines, and also improves
fidelity in the seating area.
 When sitting on a sloping floor, the listener receives more
direct sound than would be available on a flat floor.
 A sloping floor is
desirable in halls where
audience sound
absorption must be
minimized.
 Section of a hall with a
rear balcony and constant
clearance. for safety the slope should not
 the result is an increased exceed about 35degree
slope for the elevated
balcony