Professional Documents
Culture Documents
One aspect of community response to noise involves people in motion by the vibration of the primary components (see
inside houses. Since house structures have many components Refs. 2, 3 and 9); and in the extreme case damage to the secon-
which are readily excited by noise and which can be coupled, dary structure such as plaster and tile and/or furnishings (see
they respond as complex vibrating systems. These dynamic Ref. 7).
responses are significant because they affect the environment The purpose of this article is to summarize available data
of the observers inside the house. The nature of this noise on house vibration responses due to airborne noise excita-
induced house excitation problem is illustrated in Fig. 1. tion and to define the role of such vibrations in the problem
A person inside the house can sense the impingement of of human perception of environmental noise. The building
noise on the external surfaces of the house by means of the response data contained herein, are derived largely from air-
following phenomena: noise transmitted through the struc- craft noise, helicopter noise and sonic boom flyover tests.
ture from outside to inside (see Refs. 1-6); the vibrations of The associated findings are believed to apply directly to any
the primary components of the building such as the floors, situations for which the airborne noise component is large
walls and windows (see Refs. 2,3,7 and 8); the rattling of compared to the seismic component. The material of this
objects such as dishes, ornaments and shelves which are set article was developed initially as an appendix of Ref. 10, and
has been applied to the community noise evaluation of large
*Received 28 April 1982; revised 1 July 1982 wind turbine generators. In situations for which seismic
tThe College of William and Mary, Virginia Associated excitation of the house structure can be significant, as for
Research Campus, 12070 Jefferson Avenue, Newport News, road and rail traffic, the response data of the present article
Virginia 23606 may be inadequate.
Volume 1 9 / N u m b e r 2 49
~ BEDROOM
CEILING
~--FAMILY ROOM
IIIIIIIII~Vll IIIIIIII11111111111111 ~ ~ . _ ~ / FLOOR -- //'~FAMILY
~ ' ~ .~ I ROOM
~ ~ W A L L
/-NOISE TRANSMISSION--~
OUTSIDE INSIDE ~BE/DROOM I / LA l.~I~l )i"
VIBRATION
EXCITATION ~-~INDUCED NOISE /-~,--OBSERVATIONS
NOISE NOISE
VIBRATION ,=,6.o,z ,=,,.,,, ,O,T,
Volume 19/Number 2 51
responses are about 10 dB lower in level for a given noise 1.0
level input. For comparable inputs, the associated horizon-
tal acceleration values are noted in Refs. 12 through 14 to
he about equal to, or are slightly greater than, the vertical
values given in the figure.
WALLOR FLOOR
Windows. Measured acceleration responses for several ACCELERATtONS, PREDICTION FOR
gpeak 0.1 WALL MOUNTED
conventional double hung windows are shown in Fig. 6. Win- AT 3 ANGLE-~
dow sash width and height dimensions are about 1 m and
glass thickness is about 3 mm. Good correlation is seen for
widely different aircraft, helicopter and wind turbine noise
inputs, and the t r e n d o f the d a t a indicates linear
.01 I I I I
responses; ~4-~6and unpublished work by N. D. Kelley, and by 3 lO 30 100 300 1000
R. DeLoach, K. P. Shepherd and E. F. Daniels. For a given FREQUENCY,Hz
input level the window responses are noted to be about 10 Figure 7--Criteria for the rattling of wall and floor mounted ob-
dB higher in level than the associated wall responses. jects due to vibratory excitation
Damage Experience. Very little if any damage to elements data and suggests that in practical cases some rattling might
o f the structure is expected except at extreme values o f the occur at acceleration levels less than the theoretical value of
input noise level. Experience for blasting, explosions and for 1.0 g. Such lower acceleration values are usually associated
sonic booms suggest that damage to houses may occur at with small contact areas and probably result from local sur-
peak acceleration values between about 0.3 and 3.0 g in the face imperfections and misalignments from the vertical.
frequency range of 10 to 100 Hz respectively.' 7It can be seen For cases where objects are suspended in pendulum fashion
that the measured levels of wall, floor and window accelera- from the wall the lower criteria line might apply. It should
tions which are cited for aircraft, helicopter, and wind tur- apply theoretically to situations where the hang angle (angle
bine noise are generally lower than 0.3 g and hence no damage between wall and hanging flat object) is about 3 . The cross
is expected. Sonic boom excitation which is associated with hatching represents the range of data available for a number
the extreme values of input pressure has been blamed for of objects such as plaques, pictures and mirrors, from house
some incipient damage to light structural elements such as situations and for a steel ball in laboratory tests. The scatter
windows, plaster and tile surfaces, etc. 7,' o f measured results suggests that small variations in the wall
geometry or that of the suspended object can be significant.
By implication, objects that hang by smaller hang angles are
susceptible to rattle at lower acceleration levels.
Vibrations of Accessories
20 I I I
0.1 1.0 10 100 20 t
ONE-THIRD OCTAVEBAND CENTERFREQUENCY,Hz
I I I .J
0.1 1.0 10 100
Figure 8--Most sensitive threshold o f perception o f vibratory
ONE-THIRDOCTAVEBANDCENTERFREQUENCY.HZ
motion by humans
Figure 9--Sound pressure levels sufficient to cause perceptible vibra-
tions o f house structure elements over a range of frequencies
about a factor of 10 in vibration amplitude. The composite
(related) guidelines curve o f Fig. 8 is judged to be the best
120
representation of the available whole body (most sensitive
axis) vibration perception data. lOO
Note the two cross hatched regions on Fig. 8 from the data
ACCELERATION
o f Ref. 26. These are estimated one-third octave band levels LEVEL, dB 80
o f vibrations which were judged perceptible in two different re 1.0 l~g
Volume 19/Number 2 53
-- PROJECTED
40 , ~ \ \ \ RANGE OF AVAILABLE MEASUREMENTS Concluding Remarks
l , t ' I I
IS IT POSSIBLE 000
that high performance, industry compatible condenser
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40
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I
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In the N e x t I s s u e . . .
Dosimeters, Impulsive Noise and the OSHA Hearing Conservation Amendment
The Decaying Flow Technique: A Method for the Rapid Acquisition of Data Relating to
Regenerated Noise in Ventilation Systems
Direct Measurement of Transmission Loss of Aircraft Structures Using the Acoustic Intensity
Approach
N o v e m b e r - D e c e m b e r 1982
NOISE CONTROL ENGINEERING JOURNAL
These articles may be subject to change
Volume 19/Number 2 55