ca Acoustics of Concrete in Buildings The science of acoustics is well advanced and very complex, With ine aid ofa few basic concepts, however the architect or designer can dasign a building with ef- tective noise contro’ or ascees acoustical problems. The Nature of Sound ‘Sound is created by anything that will vibrate rapidly — human vocal cords, a steel plate slauck by a hammer. or a floor as a shoe drops on it, for example, Any elastic ‘material will ary sound, which can thenbetransmitted into the air by wave action. In a vacuum there is 10 sound Noise Is sound thal is ot wanted, and whats consid: ered noise depends upon the incividual, even perhaps Upon his or her mood. The major qualities of noise are Unexpectedness, interference, appropriateness. inter mittency, and reverberation. Tone ‘The ear perceives the trequancy ofa vibration as pitch, However, very few pure pitch sounds are hoard be ‘cause most sounds are composed of a combination of Several harmonic and rasonant vibrations with different ‘energies, and of diferent sound wave shapes. These ‘combinations give sound a qualily or timbre, which, to ‘gether with pitch, constitute tone. For example. a pitch pipe, @ human voice, and a church bell may create Eounds of the same frequency, but the timbre and, therefore, the tone of each is diferent “Thus @ pure tone (pitch) may be defined as a sound with only ane frequency (number of vibrations per sec Cond). One vibration or cycle per second (i cps) isahertz (Hz). On the plano (see Fig. 1) middle Ghas.afrequency cf 262 Hz. The lowest of the 88 kays on a piano has a frequency of 27 He and the highest, 4186 Hz. This is essentially the range of pitches used in the study of building acoustics. Loudness Air pressure created by a vibration Is hear as sound when ft hits the ear mechanism. The greater the pres- Sure, the greater the lousiness or intensity of the sound. However, the loudness of a soundis not directly propor- tional to ts pressure. ‘Sound pressure level is measured in decibels (08), logarithmic tunctions of the ratio of the measures pres: sure to a reference pressute. Since the human ear is more sensitive to sound intensity in the middie range of frequencies, loudness is determined at a frequency of 1000 Hz. Table 1 provides a list of several sounds and their intensities. Each increase of 20 dB represents atenfold increase of pressure, The ear mechanism automatically reduces its sensitivty as ihe pressure increases, An increase of 10 48 is a thveetold increase in pressure, but the loud- ress sensation to the oar is only doubled ‘Sound from a point source in air of water radiates in spherical fashion, the energy spreading more thinly as the radius increases, The sound pressure level de- creases at the rate of 6 0B for every doubling of the Fagus. in a room wih large horizontal dimensions anc 2 low, hard ceiling, the energy spreads basically in only two directions and dissipates atthe rate ol dB for every doubling of the radius. In a long corridor with hard fin- ishes, sound travels mostly in one direction with very litle reduction in energy with distance traveled. Dissipation of sound is a function of the medium. in air, below about 1000 Hz, dissipation is low, bul above +1000 Hz itis significant, Impact sounds are transmitted through solid materials at varying atfciencies. depend- ing upon the density and elasticity of the material. In a solid materia! 100 ft (30.5 m) long, sound is attenuated 25 follows: 0.7 dB in steel, 2 dB in brickwork, 3Y a in cconerete, and 6 0B in wood, Reverberation and Resonance ‘Another area of acoustics involves sound improvement. (One ofthe mostimportant aspects ofthis subject is con-re a = no Se ‘Table 1. Intensities of Varlous Sounds Impact Decibels 40 ‘Sound “Trresnoid of pain Fla jot at aloft 2001 (51 from tal ‘Throshold ot alscorntort Dangerous 130 ——__ 1» Thunder Boiler tactory Garam at 8 (09) Deatening 110 a ‘Ghai saw at 2 (09m) Pose white INotsy factory ‘Vacuum cleaner or passing wuck Freight tain at 100 f (30 Note office ‘Average office ‘Average conversation blot rato, Moderate “Average residence Guiet convertion ural background noise Faint sesegesa 8 ‘wnieper oF rustle of tosvas ‘Average teshold of hearing Normal presting © Acute theshold of avabiity Very teint 10 ‘cert hall acoustics, which is a tremendously compl- ‘oaled subject and is beyond the scope of this report. The continuation of reflected sound within a room is called reverberation. Acoustic experts genevally agree that one of the most common probloms in auaitoriums is to achieve an optimum reverberation time—short ‘enough so that successive sounds are not too blurred by the preceding ones, yet long enough for reflected sounds to reinforce and enhance the direct sounds. There is a correlation between absorption coefficients and reverberation time: as the absorption coefficient of the wall material is increased, the reverberation time is decreased. Sound in an auditorium that is too absorp. tive, though, is lat and unpleasant. Because some con- crete masonry units have relatively high absorption Coefficients, they improve the acoustics in audtoriums and halls Tn general, the smaller the room or auditorium, the shorter the reverberation time. In small rooms itis not quite as important to use a material with a high absorp- tion coefficient in order to obtain satistactory acoustics, ‘An extreme example is a tenor singing in a shower, a very small enclosure with hard and therefore highly ce fleclive surfaces (usually glass or ceramic tile). Good audibilty ie maintained because the low reverberation time coincides with the small enclosure. However, ne same tenor and the same material placed in an auci- {orium of several million cubic fect would not produce the same desirable results. ‘Resonance is the action by which a wall orparitionisset inmotionby air waves froma separalesound source. A classic example of resonance is that in which an ‘opera singer strikes a very high note, a crystal goblet is set vibrating at the same frequency, and the goblet shatters. Walls in auditoriums may be set in mation by ‘oenain musical tones, and thus require stiffening, Ita partion has resonance. itis acoustically almost rans- parent, a disturbing development to a neighbor. Criteria tor Acoustic Ratings There are three principal types of acoustic ratings (see ‘Table 2}. Within each type, the sound loss may be ident fed at any individual frequency or may be given as 2 class rating thal is a composite forall requencies. SAC ‘and NRC values are expressed as decimals, fractions, ‘oF percents. ll olher ratings are in decibels. The tings have one thing in common: the Jarger the number, the ‘greater or betier the sound insulating quality of the walt or tloor assembly. ‘Table 2. Acoustic Ratings By wteduat | Oy ‘Type of ring _| ‘frequencies | class | vee Bound aovariton | sag | wae | Was “aioe. eo catings Bound transmission Wl Tons (soorme) Te | STC] poorcetings impact nove aowton | ISP} TNT poor, tmpect sowed soation| —'SPL_ | NC Building codes both in the United States and abroad requiate the amount of sound thal must be intercepted by walls and floors, Typically, the required loss for air borne as woll as impact sounds is in the range of 40to '55 dB anc depends upon the type of occupancy. How: fever, regulations for sound absorption are hard to find, ‘There are two separate rating types for airborne sound. Sound absorption inthe building industry reters {othe traction of sound eneray absorbed on the wall sur- face adjacent to the sound's source. Sound transmis sion foss is the lotal amount of sound (decibels) lost fram one side of the wall to the other. ‘Acoustic ratings are, in a way, simpifications that have been developed for practical acoustic control by designers and builders. itis not possible to useacoustic ratings 1oilustrate how an airborne sound (or iis energy) ig divided in numerical values as absorption and reflec tion in one room as well as transmission loss to an ad. Joining rom, because these ratings are derived with tests which also invaive reverberation under different ‘conditions, ‘Sound Absorption, NRC Fig. 2 shows data for two 8-in. (200-rmn) lightweight concrete masonry walls. The absorption coetticient 09 Eight-inch shale aggregate ABSORPTION COEFFICIENT on WB 28500 KK ak FREQUENCY, Hr Fig. 2. Sound absorption test data for two lightweight concrete masonry walls. varios with the frequency of the sound. The sound ab- sorption coefficient (SAC) is the amountot soundenergy absorbed as compared 10 a perfectly absorptive sur. face like an open window. Translated into decibels, the SAC for 90% absorption equals 10 0B, for 70%—5 0B, for 50%—3 dB, and for 30%—1.5 4B. These coefficients ‘are valid rogardless of the sound level. inrealty, tis dit- ficult to lose much more than about 5 JB of sound by ‘absorption, but such reduction does reduce the loud- ness by 35%. ‘The noise reduction coefficient (NRC) is found by averaging SAC valves at frequencies of 250, 500, 1000, ‘and 2000 Hz (ASTM C423, see box on page 4).1n Fig. 2. ‘wall No. 16 (sod line) has an NAC value of 0.46 ‘Sound Transmission Loss, STC ‘The sound transmission loss (TL) value is determined for each of 16 frequency bands by the method given in ‘ASTM E90. Since this procedure involves many valves, ‘and the TL for a single frequency cannot adequately describe the acoustical properties of a wall, a sound transmission class (STC) rating ig used. Itis determined according to ASTM E413 (sce Fig, 3) as follows: The heavy line represents the ASTM STC criteria ‘contour. To determine STC raling, the STC contour is ‘moved up or down until i best “fits” the test data. The ‘STC contour is movedas high as possible white the sum ‘ofthe deviations below the criteria curve is no morethan 32 dB and no single point is more than 8 dB below the ‘contour, The STC designation is then read from the ‘ASIN line at 500 Hz. In this example the designation is ‘STC 45 or Class 45. The STC rating is intended for par- {tions and walls as welt as floor-ceiling assemblies, doors, and other space-dividing elements. Impact Sound or Noise, INR and HC ‘The acoustic rating used for floors rolates to impact noises such as those caused by footsteps or furniture,