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Acoustics of Buildings
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Acoustics of Buildings

A special issue of Buildings (ISSN 2075-5309). This special issue belongs to the section "Building Energy, Physics, Environment, and Systems".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 November 2022) | Viewed by 14403

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Delphine Bard-Hagberg

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of Engineering Acoustics, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
Interests: building acoustics; room acoustics; acoustic comfort

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The evaluation of the acoustic quality of a building is a delicate and somewhat personal issue, due in part to the complexity of the sound field system contained in enclosed spaces, the acoustic features of the outlining surfaces, the building system used, and also the volume of the rooms. It should not be overlooked that this is true not only for new builds but also for renovated buildings.
The aim of this Special Issue is to provide and share the latest research regarding the improvement of the sound quality in buildings. This could cover several topics but need not be restricted to the following:

  • Sound insulation
  • Low frequencies
  • Reverberation
  • Measurement methods
  • Prediction methods
  • Perception
  • Flanking transmission
  • Measurements

We very much look forward to your submissions!

Dr. Delphine Bard-Hagberg
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Buildings is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • building acoustics
  • flanking transmissions
  • sound insulation
  • airborne sound
  • step sound
  • ventilation noise
  • technical noise

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (5 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 6699 KiB  
Article
Investigation of the Appropriate Reverberation Time in Learning Spaces for Elderly People Using Speech Intelligibility Tests
by Seung-Min Lee, Chan-Jae Park and Chan-Hoon Haan
Buildings 2022, 12(11), 1943; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12111943 - 10 Nov 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2038
Abstract
The Republic of Korea is currently an aging society, and it will enter an ultra-aging society in 2025. This study aimed to investigate the undesignated appropriate reverberation time of learning spaces for elderly people in Korea. For this purpose, a virtual sound field [...] Read more.
The Republic of Korea is currently an aging society, and it will enter an ultra-aging society in 2025. This study aimed to investigate the undesignated appropriate reverberation time of learning spaces for elderly people in Korea. For this purpose, a virtual sound field was created, and the anechoic sounds were convoluted with the virtual sound field to control the reverberation time via absorption rate adjustments. Using a virtual sound field, auralized materials were made which have five different conditions with a reverberation time ranging from 0.4 s to 1.2 s. Speech intelligibility tests were conducted in both elderly and young people using headphones. Consonant–Vowel–Consonant (CVC) tests were undertaken. Preliminary experiments were performed to adjust the difficulty levels of speech intelligibility via normal young adults. The test order was nonsequential, and the sound output level was 60 dB(A). As a result, the test scores were found to decrease with an increase in the reverberation time. In addition, it was revealed that the test scores fell by 32.4% compared with the scores of normal adults under the same reverberation conditions. When the reverberation time was longer than 0.8 s, the test score was reduced by up to 13.3%; therefore, learning spaces for elderly people may require reverberation times shorter than 0.8 s. If the proposed reverberation time were applied to learning spaces for the elderly, it is believed that it could provide an appropriate sound environment for the elderly. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acoustics of Buildings)
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23 pages, 4800 KiB  
Article
Experimental Characterization and Acoustic Correction of a Multipurpose Performance Hall: The Italian Theatre “Cavallino Bianco”
by Maria Grazia De Giorgi, Paolo Maria Congedo, Cristina Baglivo, Marina Bonomolo and Daniele Milone
Buildings 2022, 12(9), 1344; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12091344 - 31 Aug 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2421
Abstract
This study presents the retrofit acoustic dq1esign of the Italian theatre “Cavallino Bianco”. In its historical configuration, the hall had a curved roof with a pressed-plant fiber ceiling, which was demolished and replaced with a wooden roof without a false ceiling, leading to [...] Read more.
This study presents the retrofit acoustic dq1esign of the Italian theatre “Cavallino Bianco”. In its historical configuration, the hall had a curved roof with a pressed-plant fiber ceiling, which was demolished and replaced with a wooden roof without a false ceiling, leading to an increase in volume and a worsening of the reverberation time. This study proposed the realization of a wave ceiling and the application of sound-absorbing and reflecting panels on the walls, which have already been implemented. These modifications have affected the acoustic characterization of the theatre, as shown both through on-site measurements during the main construction phases and through numerical simulations. The reverberation time, clarity index, and speech transmission index (STI) are evaluated considering all the variations in the hall over different construction times, and the optimal solution is identified with regard to different specific uses. The final configuration with the new roof, by reducing the volume of the hall and using sound-absorbing materials, significantly reduces the reverberation time (e.g., at 2000 Hz, this reduction is from 2.33 to 1.47). In addition, the hall at full capacity with chairs and people shows evident improvement in terms of the clarity index, allowing the theatre to be used for a wide range of musical genres such as instrumental, symphonic, and opera performances. As regards the Combos 00 (concrete roof without vertical sound acoustic panels) and 01-a/b/c (wooden roof with draped curtains), the STI values are never lower than 0.42 and never higher than 0.70; therefore, the room never experiences poor or excellent conditions at any point. The Combos 01-a and 01-b, which have a non-performing C80, have a good STI index, confirming the difficulty of achieving a configuration that can be optimal a variety of uses. Combo 01 (wooden roof without vertical sound acoustic panels and no draped curtains), which has a good C80 value, presents a lower STI value, with an average performance. The STI values of Combo 02-a (characterized by wave false ceiling and vertical sound acoustic panels) are never lower than 0.52 and never higher than 0.60; therefore, neither poor nor excellent conditions are experienced in the room, but there is still a slight improvement over the combos 00 and 01. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acoustics of Buildings)
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14 pages, 3073 KiB  
Article
Impact of Temperature and Relative Humidity on Reverberation Time in a Reverberation Room
by Artur Nowoświat
Buildings 2022, 12(8), 1282; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081282 - 21 Aug 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 3133
Abstract
Changes in acoustic parameters measured in a room may depend on the location and orientation of the sound source and microphones or on the reverberation conditions of the room. As was found in the research presented in this publication, reverberation in a room [...] Read more.
Changes in acoustic parameters measured in a room may depend on the location and orientation of the sound source and microphones or on the reverberation conditions of the room. As was found in the research presented in this publication, reverberation in a room is also influenced by thermo-hygrometric conditions. The article presents an experimental analysis involving the impact of temperature and relative air humidity in a room on reverberation time. Since it is very difficult to control the temperature and relative humidity in real conditions, the tests were carried out both in laboratory conditions and with the use of simulations. For this purpose, the results of the reverberation time measurements in the reverberation chamber for various thermo-hygrometric conditions were obtained. Then, the reverberation chamber was modeled in the ODEON Version 11.0 program, and after the validation of the model, a series of simulations were performed, demonstrating the changes in the reverberation time as a function of temperature and relative air humidity. The results are presented in both a two-dimensional and three-dimensional version, i.e., the dependence of the reverberation time as a function of two variables: air temperature and relative humidity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acoustics of Buildings)
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16 pages, 4019 KiB  
Article
Effect of Posidonia oceanica Fibers Addition on the Thermal and Acoustic Properties of Cement Paste
by Omrane Benjeddou, Malek Jedidi, Mohamed Amine Khadimallah, Gobinath Ravindran and Jayaprakash Sridhar
Buildings 2022, 12(7), 909; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12070909 - 27 Jun 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2281
Abstract
The present work focused on the experimental study of the mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties of cement composite reinforced using Posidonia oceanica (PO) fibers. For this purpose, parallelepipedic specimens of dimensions 270 mm × 270 mm × 40 mm and cubic specimens of [...] Read more.
The present work focused on the experimental study of the mechanical, thermal and acoustic properties of cement composite reinforced using Posidonia oceanica (PO) fibers. For this purpose, parallelepipedic specimens of dimensions 270 mm × 270 mm × 40 mm and cubic specimens of dimensions 150 mm × 150 mm × 150 mm were prepared with a water-to-cement ratio of 0.50 by varying the volume of fibers (Vf) from 0% to 20%. Properties such as compressive strength, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, standardized level difference and sound transmission class were examined. The compressive strength of the specimens was determined using the rebound hammer test, while the thermal measurements were performed with the steady-state box method. The results showed that the addition of PO fibers improved the compressive strength of the mixtures and produced a maximum value of 33.60 MPa for a 10% volume of fiber content. Thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity decreased significantly with the addition of fibers for all the mixtures. The experimental investigation also showed that the sound transmission class of PO-fiber-reinforced cementitious composites decreased as the fiber volume increased due to an increase in air voids in the mixtures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acoustics of Buildings)
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14 pages, 2589 KiB  
Article
Investigation of the Appropriate Reverberation Time for Lower-Grade Elementary School Classrooms Using Speech Intelligibility Tests
by A-Hyeon Jo, Chan-Jae Park and Chan-Hoon Haan
Buildings 2022, 12(6), 808; https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12060808 - 11 Jun 2022
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3110
Abstract
Because speech recognition performance is significantly lower at the age of nine or younger, the acoustic performance standards of classrooms for young children should be investigated. This study derives the appropriate reverberation time for lower-grade elementary school classrooms in Korea. A virtual sound [...] Read more.
Because speech recognition performance is significantly lower at the age of nine or younger, the acoustic performance standards of classrooms for young children should be investigated. This study derives the appropriate reverberation time for lower-grade elementary school classrooms in Korea. A virtual sound field was created by computer modeling using normalized classrooms of Korean elementary schools. A total of five classrooms with reverberation times from 0.6 s to 1.2 s were produced by varying the sound absorption coefficient of the ceiling. Auralized sounds were produced by synthesizing anechoic sounds of words in a virtual sound field. Speech intelligibility tests were undertaken with 20 young students, aged nine. As a result, it was concluded that the reverberation time suitable for lower-grade classrooms of elementary schools should be below 0.6 s because test scores were significantly lower when RT was longer than this value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Acoustics of Buildings)
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