WSEAS TRANSACTION ON ACOUSTICS AND MUSIC Issue 2, Vol.

1, April 2004 ISSN: 1109-9577

Evaluation of acoustical performance of enclosed-type schools

HANI S. OBEID Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering Applied Science University P.O.Box 950674, Amman 11195 JORDAN Hobeid50@yahoo.com
Abstract- The paper presents the results of an acoustical study performed on an enclosed-type two-story school. The background noise levels were measured and the results evaluated by calculating Transmission Loss and Sound Noise Reduction. Special Software SABIN is used to calculate the reverberation time of internal spaces before and after treatment of ceilings to obtain the recommended reverberation time for clear and intelligible speech. Key Words: Reverberation time, Speech Interference Level, Noise Criteria, Transmission Loss

1.

Introduction

levels of noise from children, and it becomes difficult to hear speech. Excessive noise and reverberation interfere with speech intelligibility, resulting in reduced understanding and therefore reduced learning. In many classrooms in the United States, the speech intelligibility rating is 75 percent or less. That means that, in speech intelligibility tests, listeners with normal hearing can understand only 75 percent of the words read from a list. Imagine reading a textbook with every fourth word missing, and being expected to understand the material and be tested on it. Sounds ridiculous? Well, that is exactly the situation facing students every day in schools all across the United States [2]. It is common believe that noise generates more noise-that is, the poorer the acoustics and the noisier the environment, the louder and noisier the students will become. Therefore, It is important to have realistic assessment of acoustical conditions prevail in schools in order to influence their existing provision or new building regulations. Good acoustics benefit both teachers and students and this is a major factor in improving hearing environment.

The architectural acoustics is vitally important to the functionality of speech. The sound is one of environmental conditions that staff and students notice most often. Since speech is a key element of effective teaching, poor acoustics can have a large effect on learning. In many classrooms, students cannot hear words clearly, and their concentration wanders. Many are straining to hear rather than directing their energy towards understanding the lesson. Nearly all schools have hard materials on walls, ceilings and floors; when sound reflects off these surfaces it leads to high reverberation times and creates disturbing echoes. Requirement E4 from part E of schedule 1 to The Building Regulations 2000 states that: Each room or other space in a school shall be designed and constructed in such a way that they have the acoustic conditions and the insulation against disturbance by noise appropriate to its intended use [1]. Background noise also can be a problem. Sound from outside traffic, adjacent classrooms, corridors creates background noise that teachers have to raise their voices in order to be heard. Combine this with normal

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2. Assessment of an EnclosedType School

An enclosed-type school has been selected for the study. The school consists of two floors; typical classrooms are located at the first floor, while computer room, library, multipurpose rooms and administration are located at ground floor. The school is located in a populated area in Amman and problems of echoes, noise and lack of speech intelligibility are encountered during the day. The main target of the study is to analyze, measure and assist the acoustics features of such type of the school in order to define the problems and to propose suggestions and methods of solving or mitigating acoustic problems.

The values of reverberation time at mid frequencies are shown in table 1.

The results of the calculations show that the values of the reverberation time of spaces in school are much higher than the recommended values. The recommended values of the reverberation time [4] are shown in table 2. The British Association of Teachers of the deaf has set a more rigid requirement on the classroom acoustics in terms of recommended reverberation time. The reverberation time should not exceed 0.4 seconds across the frequency range 125 Hz to 4000 Hz [5]. In order to comply with these values it is necessary to increase the absorption material in each space by treating the interior surfaces. The most efficient method is to treat the ceiling with acoustic material. A series of calculations were made by software SABIN for the same spaces in the school. The calculations were performed after treatment the ceiling with an acoustic material of high absorption. It was found that the most adequate material from the absorption point of view should have an absorption coefficient as shown in table 3. It was found that one of the following materials would satisfy the requirements of
absorption. These materials are: acoustic spray on solid backing, Sprayed cellulose fiber (16 mm) on solid backing and acoustic plaster. The acoustic spray was used to treat a number of schools in United States of America.

3.

Reverberation Time

For many years reverberation time was the only real objective measure of the acoustic performance of many spaces. People are most influenced by the initial portion of arriving sound energy. It is well known that the perceived direction of a sound is solely determined by the first arriving impulse (which is pretty reasonable as this is nearly always the direct sound). Secondly impulses (reflected sound) therefore contribute more to a perception of how large the source is and what sort of space it is in. reverberation time is one of the most important factors that determine the acoustical performance of the enclosed spaces and affects the clarity and intelligibility of speech. The reverberation time of the following spaces were calculated by special software SABIN from Acoustics Engineering/ Netherlands [3]. - Typical classroom - Computer room - Multipurpose room - Library - Corridor

Table 4 shows the reverberation time of school spaces before and after treatment at mid frequencies. The values of reverberation time of each space over a frequency range 125 Hz to 4000 Hz for treated ceiling are shown in table 5.

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It is important to note that the overriding criterion for speech is intelligibility. Since speech of short disconnected sounds of 30 to 300 ms in length, among which are high frequency, low energy phonemes, the ideal room must assure the ears undistorted reception of these phonemes. This requires keeping reverberation to a minimum. We can obtain a good approximation to the subjective feeling of a room, for purposes of speech, from the relation:
RT60 = 0.3 log V 10
3

Once the SIL has been computed, SIL curves as defined by the ANSI Standard [6] is used to determine the speech level required for just reliable speech communication between talker and receiver at a given distance. SIL for various spaces in school were computed based on measurements of sound pressure levels. Table 6 shows the calculated SIL and the expected voice level for a male speaker.

For a typical classroom of 154 m , the reverberation time for mid frequencies is equal to 0.36 s, which is in line with what we obtained after treatment of ceiling.

The analysis of data shown in table 6 indicate that the noise level in school is very high and in order for speech to be heard it is required to raise the speakers voice to level of shout. This is a straight violation of standards for intelligible speech. In order to determine the required sound insulation between spaces it is necessary to study the data obtained by measurements and to apply the Noise Criteria NC Curves. For classrooms it is required to apply NC 35 to define the background noise. Also, the sound reduction between rooms may be evaluated by calculating Sound Transmission Loss STL. Table 7 shows Sound Transmission Loss of various types of concrete blocks and walls. The calculations indicated that the external and internal walls provide good sound insulation from background noise and from noise generated within classroom and multipurpose rooms. The main path of noise will be through corridors. The walls separating corridors from classrooms contain doors and windows, and the noise reduction of such a composite wall will be much smaller than a wall of concrete block. The transmission Loss and the Noise Reduction of such composite wall at 1000 Hz are 23 and 19 dB respectively, which mean that a noise level of 86 dB in the corridor will attenuate by 19 dB only and the noise in the room will be 67. Therefore, the main sound will be transmitted with little

4. Noise Level Measurements

The background noise plays an important role in the presentation of acoustic signals. The background noise must be sufficiently low in level so as to allow communication to take place. In the case of classroom the communication is speech. Therefore, measurements of noise levels in the schools are considered to be the first step in evaluation room noise criteria. Measurements were performed by using Bruel & Kjaer Precision Integration Sound Level Meter SLM Type 2236. Two criteria are used to analyze the background noise of the school. These are: Speech Interference Level SIL. Noise Criteria Curves NC.

The Speech Interference Level is the arithmetic mean of the sound pressure level of a noise in the octave bands centered at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 HZ. This measure is known as the four bands SIL. The SIL is used to characterize the overall background noise in the speech range of frequencies.

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attenuation from corridors to rooms via the separating walls, and that is applicable practically to all internal spaces. 3. Cost Analysis

fact that these walls contain doors and windows, and the Transmission Loss of such a composite wall is poor. Because the school is not provided with A/C systems, so it is impossible to make the internal spaces very well insulated from the acoustical point of view. It was found that during the teaching process the background noise in classrooms in not so annoying to teachers and students. The level of the noise will be so high during the breaks and when the students enter or leave the school. Therefore, it is not recommended to use acoustical doors or double glaze windows, besides the cost of such doors are so high ($ 2500 to $ 3500) compared to the cost of other building elements in the school. 5. The References 1. The Education (School Premises) Regulations. (1999) SI 1999 No. 2. The Stationary Office, 1999, ISBN. 2. Classroom acoustics. (2000). A publication of the technical committee on architectural acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America. 3. Statistical Acoustic Based Investigator. SABIN 3.0 (2002). Acoustical Engineering. Netherlands. 4. Guidelines for environmental design in schools. (1997). Building Bulletin 87, (Revision on design note 17),
Architects and Building Branch, DfEE, The Stationary Office, ISBN 0 11 2710131.

A cost analysis is performed for one classroom of the school to estimate the extra cost that should be paid to eliminate the echo effect only and to obtain the required reverberation time for speech intelligibility. The dimension of the classroom is 7.45x6.4 m and the ceiling height is 3.2 m. we will use the figure for ministry of Education in Jordan about the actual cost of such a classroom in urban areas, which is 135 JD/m2. the actual cost of such a classroom is 6437 JD and if we deduct the cost of ceiling paint, which is 48 JD, then the total cost after ceiling paint cutoff will be 6389 JD. To that figure we will add the cost of acoustic spray (as an example we apply acoustic spray K13 and the cost per meter square is 17 JD), so the total cost of classroom after treatment of the ceiling will be 7205 JD. Therefore, the mark up on the total cost after ceiling treatment is 11%. 4. Conclusions

An enclosed-type two floors school was selected as an example to be studied from acoustical point of view. The acoustical features of the school are evaluated in terms of parameters that affect the clear and intelligible speech. The values of the calculated reverberation time of all internal spaces indicate that the school suffers largely from echo problems. Therefore, the ceiling of internal spaces should be treated to obtain the recommended values of reverberation time. The measurements of noise levels in all internal spaces show that the main path of sound is through the walls separating the rooms from the corridors. The attenuation through these walls is very limited due to the

5. Classroom acoustics-Recommended Standards. Information sheet, BATOD magazine, Jan. 2001, page 13. 6. American National Standard Institute (1977). ANSI S3.14-1977. Rating noise with respect to speech interference.

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Table 1 Reverberation time of school spaces at mid frequencies No 1 2 3 4 5 Space Typical classroom Computer room Library Multipurpose room Corridor Reverberation Time in seconds 1.16 1.38 1.38 1.38 1.17

Table 2 Recommended ranges of reverberation time at mid frequencies. No 1 2 3 4 5 Space Classroom IT and Computer room Library Multipurpose room Corridor Reverberation Time in seconds 0.4 0.8 0.5 0.8 0.5 1.0 0.5 0.8 0.6

Table 3 Absorption coefficient of material for ceiling treatment Frequency, Hz Absorption coefficient 125 0.08 250 0.16 500 0.46 1000 0.87 2000 1.07 4000 1.12

Table 4 Values of reverberation time before and after treatment No 1 2 3 4 5 Space type Typical classroom Computer room Library Multipurpose room Corridor Reverberation Time in seconds Before treatment After treatment 1.18 0.44 1.38 0.47 1.38 0.46 1.38 0.46 1.17 0.52

Table 5 Reverberation time of treated ceiling over a frequency range 125 Hz 4000 Hz

Reverberation Time Type of space

Typical classroom Computer room Library Multipurpose room Corridor 125 1.33 1.64 1.63 1.64 1.51 250 1.04 1.21 1.2 1.21 1.19 Frequency, Hz 500 1000 0.55 0.33 0.59 0.34 0.59 0.34 0.59 0.34 0.64 0.39 2000 0.25 0.26 0.26 0.26 0.30 4000 0.22 0.23 0.23 0.23 0.27

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Table 6 SIL and expected voice level for various spaces in the school Space Classroom Computer Multipurpose room Corridor Landing Sound Interference Level SIL 62 67 94 65 81 Expected voice level Raised to very load Very load Shout at less than 0.5 m Raised to very load Shout

Table 7 Sound Transmission Loss for various types of concrete blocks and walls Mass Kg/m
2

Type of wall Hallow block 15 cm with plastering Hallow block 20 cm with plastering Block 15 cm with plastering Block 20 cm with plastering Concrete 15 cm without reinforcing with plastering Concrete 20 cm without reinforcing with plastering Reinforced concrete 15 cm with plastering Reinforced concrete 20 cm with plastering

314 377 396 497 441 559 457 579

Sound Transmission Loss, dB Frequency, Hz 125 250 500 1000 44 50 56 62 45 51 58 64 46 52 58 64 48 54 60 66 47 52.8 58.8 64.9 48.8 47 49.2 54.9 53.1 55.2 60.9 59.1 61.2 66.9 65.1 67.2

2000 86 70 70 72 70.9 73 71.2 73.2

4000 74 76 76 78 76.9 79 77.2 79.3

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