San Jose State University

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

ME 120 Experimental Methods

Sound Measurement
BJ Furman
12OCT02

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Sound and Noise

Sound is: any pressure variation (in air, water or other

medium) that the human ear can detect.
(Measuring Sound, Bruel & Kjaer, Denmark, BR0047-13, 1984)

Longitudinal motion of the particles of the transmitting medium

produces pressure oscillations (compressions and rarefactions) about
the ambient pressure
Sources

Vibrating bodies

Aerodynamic phenomena

Explosions

Range of human hearing

20 20,000 Hz
Most sensitive to sound around 4 kHz

Noise is: unwanted sound. (Beckwith, et. al., 1993)

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Frequency, Wavelength, and Speed of Sound

Frequency, f = how often the the pressure oscillation

occurs (in Hz = cycles per second)
Wavelength, = the distance between successive
identical parts of the oscillation
Wave propagation speed, c in gaseous media (speed of
sound):
p0
c= f
c=

is

where

c 331.4 + 0.6T m/s (T in deg. C)

cp
cv

p0 is the static pressure of the gas

is the density of the gas

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Sound Pressure, Power, and Intensity

Sound pressure, Lp = total pressure - static pressure, but

typically expressed as an root-mean-square (rms)
value:
For a pure tone,
prms =

p(t ) 2 dt

prms =

P
2

Sound power , Lw = the rate at which sound energy is

radiated from a source (units of Watts)

1
T

Increases as the square of the sound pressure

Sound intensity , Li = the power per unit area, W/m2

Falls off as the square of the distance from the source

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Sound Pressure Level (SPL)

Level in dBA /Source
220 12 feet in front of a cannon, below muzzle
194 Theoretic maximum for pure tones
rms 0
188 Rocket launching pad
150 Jet engine test cell
0
140 Gunshot
Pain Threshold
130 Air-raid siren
120 Live rock music, thunderclap, propeller aircraft, auto horn (3 feet)
Discomfort Threshold
110 Pile driver, snowmobile (from driver's seat), sandblaster
100 Subway train, pneumatic drill, diesel truck, police siren (100 feet)
95 Ride in convertible on freeway
90 Electric lawn mower, motorcycle (25 feet), heavy truck (50 feet), city traffic
85 Average factory, electric shaver
Hearing Loss Risk Threshold
80 Hair dryer, alarm clock (2 feet), garbage disposal
70 Freeway traffic, noisy restaurant, vacuum cleaner
60 Conversation, air conditioner (20 feet)
50 Light auto traffic (100 feet)
40 Quiet office, quiet home
30 Audible whisper
20 Rustling leaves, broadcasting studio, soft whisper
10 Barely audible
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/sound/acont.html#c3
0 Threshold of hearing

SPL=20log(p /p )

where p =20Pa (about the threshold

of human hearing at 1000 Hz)

Sound level filter contours

(Source: Audio Magazine, January 1989 via http://www.locationsound.com/psreport/hearing.html)

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Leq and SEL

equivalent sound level, Leq, is the
continuous SPL that would have produced the
same sound energy over the same time

Provides a means to assign

a single value to a time history
for comparison purposes
Leq = 10log10 (

1
T

SPL, dB

The

SPL

Leq

10SPL /10dt )
Time

The

Sound Exposure Level (SEL)

(or LAE for A-weighted measurements) is the
Leq where the integration time is 1 s
BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Influence of the Sound Field on Sound Measurement

Sound pressure measurements depends on the distance from the

source and on the acoustic environment surrounding the source:

Free-field = the space around the source where there are no

reflections or disturbance of the sound waves
SPL and intensity drop by 6 dB as distance from the source doubles
Ex. Anechoic chamber, or the top of a flag pole above a quiet field
SPL measurements should be made in the free-field

Near-field = the space close (the smaller of: 2x largest dimension of

source or the wavelength of lowest frequency component) to the source
SPL measurements in the near field are not reliable, because small
changes in position can result in big differences in readings

Reverberant field = the space around the source where reflections

from walls and other objects significantly disturb the sound waves
from the source

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Sound Intensity Measurement

power (hence intensity) is largely
independent of the acoustic environment and
can provide a better quantitative measure of
how much noise a given source produces

Sound

Useful to determine how much noise a particular

source (among others) is radiating
Allows noise measurements to be made in situ

Sound

intensity is a vector quantity (magnitude

and direction), whereas SPL is essentially a
scalar quantity

Sound intensity measurements are also good for

locating noise sources
BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Sound Intensity Measurement, cont.

Sound

intensity is determined by measuring the

pressure and air particle velocity
Sound Intensity = pressure particle velocity
Force distance
energy
Power
=
i
=
=
Area
time
Area time
Area

Bruel & Kjaer, Sound Intensity, http://www.bksv.com/bksv/pdf/Sound

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Microphones for Sound Measurement

The

condenser microphone is most often used

in sound measurement instruments

Excellent frequency response

over a broad range
Requires a dc voltage
source to charge the
capacitor plates
Q = CV =

0 A
d

dQ
= I (t ) V (t ) = I (t ) R
dt

BJ Furman

http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/audio/imgaud/conm3.gif

SJSU MAE

Microphones for Sound Measurement, cont.

Electret

condenser microphone has a

prepolarized diaphragm

Polymeric film with metallized

backing

B&K 2236 SPL Meter MICROPHONE:

Type 4188 prepolarized free-field 1/ 2 condenser
microphone
Sensitivity: 30dB re 1V/Pa 2dB
Frequency Range: 8Hz to 12.5kHz 2dB
http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/audio/imgaud/etret.gif
Capacitance: 12pF

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Types of Microphones

The microphone will disturb the sound field!

Need to use the right one depending on what you want
to measure

Free-field microphone
Compensates for the disturbance it causes
Normally to be used pointed at source (0 incidence)
If used in reverberant (diffuse)-field, will underestimate SPL

Pressure microphone
Does not compensate for the disturbance it causes
Responds uniformly to the actual SPL

Random incidence microphone

Has uniform response to sound waves reaching it at all angles of
incidence
Best for difuse-field measurements
If used for free-field measurements, should be pointed 70-80
from source or will overestimate SPL
BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

Background Noise

It

is important to separate the background

noise from the noise produced by the source
itself

Measure SPL with source on

Measure SPL without source
Subtract readings
If less than 3 dB, questionable
accuracy
If 3 db < SPL < 10 dB,
correct the reading
If SPL > 10 dB,
no correction is needed
Bruel & Kjaer, Measuring Sound, http://www.bksv.com/bksv/pdf/Measuring

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE

References

Beckwith, T. G., Marangoni, R. D., Lienhard, J. H.,

Mechanical Measurements, Addison-Wesley, Reading,
MA, 1995.
Bruel & Kjaer, Sound Intensity,
http://www.bksv.com/bksv/pdf/Sound
Bruel & Kjaer, Measuring Sound,
http://www.bksv.com/bksv/pdf/Measuring
Nave, C. R., Hyperphysics, http://hyperphysics.phyastr.gsu.edu/hbase/hph.html, 2002.

BJ Furman

SJSU MAE