Acoustics

Understanding and design of acoustics for built

environment

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Jegadeesh Adusumalli

Acoustics : Definitions

Architectural acoustics (also known as

room acoustics and building acoustics)
is the science and engineering of
achieving a good sound within a building
and is a branch of acoustical
engineering.

Source : Wiki

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Acoustics : Importance
Acoustics are fundamentally important to
learning environments. Learning is intrinsically
linked with communication, and aural (sound)
communication is acoustics. Similarly, learning
is about concentration, and external noise is a
major distracting factor in education. This
article is about typical classroom environments,
up to about 1,000 square feet. Large
specialized rooms like auditoriums, gyms, and
cafeterias needs careful acoustical engineering
and should not be designed using the rules of
The
importance
acoustics is not limited to classrooms. Noise in corridors and public spaces
thumb
describedofbelow.
can soar if they are too reverberant (too much echo), with voices raised louder and louder to
overcome the background echo, just like shouting conversations at a noisy cocktail party or
restaurant. In addition, sound is an important navigational tool for people who are blind or
low vision, and either end of the reverberation scale (too "live" or reverberant, or too "dead"
or absorptive) can prevent them from finding their way.
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ACOUSTICS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

Vitruvius on acoustics and theatre design

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ACOUSTICS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

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ACOUSTICS : PIONEERS
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the
theoretical beginnings of architectural acoustics were
started by a young physics professor at Harvard College.
W. C. Sabine. Sabines work began inauspiciously enough
following a request by president Elliot to do something
about the acoustical difficulties in the then new Fogg Art
Museum auditorium,which had been completed in 1895
(Sabine, 1922).
Sabine took a rather broad view of the scope of this
mandate and commenced a series of experiments in three
Harvard auditoria with the goal of discovering the reasons
behind the difficulties in understanding speech.
By the time he had completed his work, he had developed
the first theory of sound absorption of materials, its
relationship to sound decay in rooms, and a formula for
the decay (reverberation) time in rooms.
His key discovery was that the product of the total
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absorption and
the reverberation time was a constant.
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 Soon after this discovery in 1898 he helped

with the planning of the Boston Music Hall,
now called Symphony Hall.
He followed the earlier European examples,
using a shoebox shape and heavy plaster
construction with a modest ceiling height to
maintain a reverberation time of 1.8
seconds.
Narrow side and rear balconies were used
to avoid shadow zones and a shallow stage
enclosure, with angled walls and ceiling,
directed the orchestra sound out to the
audience.
The deeply coffered ceiling and wall niches
containing classical statuary helped provide
excellent diffusion (Hunt, 1964). The
auditorium, opened in 1900 and is still one
the three or&four
best concert halls in the
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Planning,
world.
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ACOUSTICS : 20th Century

In the twentieth century, architectural acoustics
came to be recognized as a science as well as an
art.
The more routine aspects includes of room
acoustics, including noise and vibration control and
development of effective acoustical materials,
experienced marked improvements.
The development of electro-acoustic devices
including microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers
and other electronic processing instruments
flourished.
The precision, which is now available in the ability
to record and reproduce sound, has in a sense
created an expectation of excellence that is difficult
to match in a live performance.
The high-frequency response in a hall is never as
crisp as in a close-miked recording.
performance
space is seldom as quiet as a
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recording studio.
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Acoustics
Fundamentals

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Jegadeesh Adusumalli

Sound
Generation

is generated when pressure oscillations are

generated in an elastic medium at rates that are
detectable by a hearing medium.
sound is generated whenever there is a
disturbance of an elastic medium.
physical phenomenon that stimulates the sense
of hearing.
is a form of energy produced by vibrating
objects.
is a waveform that travels in matter.

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Sound wave propagates in all directions.

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Sound Pressure

Compression /
Rarefaction
High
Normal
Low

Time
Time domain plot of a waveform:
a graph showing amplitude changes

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SOUND

Sound is a wave motion in air or other elastic media

Sound is the sensation stimulated in the organs
of hearing by mechanical radiant energy
transmitted as longitudinal pressure waves
through the air or other medium

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Sound Wave a longitudinal pressure wave in air or

an elastic medium, especially one producing an
audible sensation
Wavelength the distance, measured in the
direction of propagation of a wave, from any one point
to the next point of corresponding phase
Amplitude the maximum deviation of a wave from
its average value
Frequency the number of cycles per unit time of a
wave
Hertz the SI unit of frequency, equal to one cycle
per second (Hz)
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Sound filled is a region filled with one several sound waves

Sound waves with frequency range to human
hearing is between 20 Hz 20,000 Hz
Hertz is the unit of
frequency
1 Hz = 1 period/second

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Sound is measured in decibels (dB), a logarithmic

scale that compares the amplitudes of two sound
waves. A doubling of amplitude represents a
difference of about 6 dB.
Intensity: power of the changes in air pressure as
they contact your ear
Sound Pressure Level (SPL): intensity of a
sound relative to the threshold of hearing,
measured in dB

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SOUND PROPAGATION:
REFLECTION
REFRACTION
DIFFRACTION
DIFFUSION

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REFLECTION
- When a sound wave encounters a sharp
discontinuity in the density of its medium,
some of its energy is reflected.
- Reflected sound energy follows the law
of optics, reflected energy have equal
angles of reflection and incidence.

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REFRACTION
- A change in direction which sound
waves undergoes when entering a
different medium

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DIFFUSION
- The reflection of sound off a convex or
uneven surface.
- The process of spreading or dispersing
radiated energy so that it is less direct or
coherent.

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DIFFRACTION
- The bending of the travel of sound caused by an
obstacle in its path.
- The bending of waves around small obstacles and
the spreading out of waves beyond small openings.

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Sound Transmission
The requirements for the production of sound
waves are:

A source which initiates a mechanical

disturbance.

An elastic medium through which the

disturbance can be transmitted.

Density Matters

Dense air is a more efficient transmitter of

sound than rarefied air.

At high altitudes, where the density of the air is

lower, less energy may be transferred from the
source to the air.

Sound does not travel through a vacuum. It is

only transmitted through a material medium.

Sound travels very effectively through solids

liquids.
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Medium
air (20 C)
air (0 C)
water (25 C)
sea water
diamond
iron
copper
glass

velocity m/sec
343
331
1493
1533
12000
5130
3560
5640

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depends on the amplitude of vibration

Loudness

Properties OR
Characteristics
of sound

Loud

Soft

depends on frequency
Pitch

Low

High

depends on waveform
Quality or
Timbre

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Clearer

Mixed

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Loudness
The loudness of sound is dependent on the
amount of energy which is transferred to the
medium.
It in turn is dependent on the amplitude of
vibrations of the object.

The greater the energy

from the source
(More energy transfer)
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Larger amplitude of
vibration

Louder
sound
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