Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.

Nishanthini
UNIT IV- FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
BUILDING SERVICES II
 UNIT IV- FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
INTRODUCTION TO LIGHTING
 Fundamentals – sound waves, frequency, intensity, wave length, measure of sound, decibel scale,
speech and music frequencies. NC curves. Permissible noise limits. Material property - absorption,
reflection, scattering, diffusion, transmission. Absorption co-efficient, NRC, Sound Transmission Class
(STC), Impact Insulation Class (IIC).
 Understanding acoustic properties of materials/ products through study of product literature/ site
visits.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS

Prepared by Ar.Nishanthini
 FUNDAMENTAL OF ACOUSTICS
WHAT IS ACOUSTICS ?
• Acoustic is the science of sound which deals with the properties of sound waves.
• Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids
including vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound.
• A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics
technology may be called an acoustical engineer.
• The application of acoustics is present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio
and noise control industries.
• The word "acoustic" is derived from the Greek word ἀκουστικός (akoustikos), meaning "of or for hearing, ready to
hear"
• The study of acoustics revolves around the generation, propagation and reception of mechanical waves and
vibrations.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nishanthini

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FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
1. Sound waves
2. Frequency
3. Intensity
4. Wavelength
5. Measure of sound
6. Decibel scale
7. Speech and music frequencies
https://youtu.be/nGKffdaI4Pg
1. SOUND WAVES :
• A sound wave is the pattern of disturbance caused by the movement of energy traveling through a medium (such as air,
water, or any other liquid or solid matter) as it propagates away from the source of the sound.
• The source is some object that causes a vibration, such as a ringing telephone, or a person's vocal chords.
• The vibration disturbs the particles in the surrounding medium; those particles disturb those next to them, and so on.
The pattern of the disturbance creates outward movement in a wave pattern, like waves of seawater on the ocean.
• The wave carries the sound energy through the medium, usually in all directions and less intensely as it moves farther
from the source.
• There are two types of sound waves
a. longitudinal waves
b. Transverse waves

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
1. SOUND WAVES :
a. Longitudinal Waves:
• A wave in which the particles of the medium vibrate back and forth in the ‘same direction’ in which the
wave is moving.
• Medium can be solid, liquid or gases.
• Therefore, sound waves are longitudinal waves.
b. Transverse Waves:
• A wave in which the particles of the medium vibrate up and down ‘at right angles’ to the direction in which
the wave is moving.
• These waves are produced only in a solids and liquids but not in gases.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

 FUNDAMENTAL OF ACOUSTICS
FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
2. FREQUENCY :
• Frequency is the speed of the vibration, and this determines the pitch of the sound.
• It is only useful or meaningful for musical sounds, where there is a strongly regular
waveform.
• Frequency is measured as the number of wave cycles that occur in one second.
• The unit of frequency measurement is Hertz (Hz for short).
Frequency= Waves/Time

3. SOUND INTENSITY:
• Sound intensity, also known as acoustic intensity, is defined as the power
carried by sound waves per unit area in a direction perpendicular to that area.
• The SI unit of intensity, which includes sound intensity, is the watt per square
meter (W/m2)

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

 FUNDAMENTAL OF ACOUSTICS
FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
4. WAVELENGTH:
• The minimum distance in which a sound wave repeats itself is called its wavelength.
• That is it is the length of one complete wave. It is denoted by a Greek letter λ (lambda).
• We know that in a sound wave, the combined length of a compression and an adjacent rarefaction is called its
wavelength.
• Also, the distance between the centers of two consecutive compressions or two consecutive rarefactions is equal to its
wavelength

COMPRESSION + RAREACTIONS

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

 FUNDAMENTAL OF ACOUSTICS
FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
5. MEASURE OF SOUND:
• A form of energy made by vibrations
• When an object vibrates it causes the air particles around it to move.
• These particles bump into particles close to them and this continues until they run out of energy.

Characteristics of sound
• Sound is a propagating fluctuation in pressure - a longitudinal compression wave form generated by a object
causing - vibrating fluctuations in pressure in a medium (air, water etc) and spreading outwards from the
source in all directions.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

 FUNDAMENTAL OF ACOUSTICS
FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
5. MEASURE OF SOUND:
• When the sound is measured, in
general, frequency response and
the loudness of the sound are
subjected.
• The frequency uses "Hz" for the
measuring unit, as is generally
known.
• The sound loudness uses the
logarithmic scale because the
range of change is extremely
wide.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
5. MEASURE OF SOUND:
Sound and vibration -difference
• sound refers to waveforms traveling through a fluid medium such as air vibration describes energy transmitted through
denser materials such as wood, steel, stone, dirt, drywall or anything besides a fluid.
• Sound is reflected, transmitted, or absorbed by the materials it encounters.
• Soft surfaces, such as textiles, and batt insulation, tend to absorb sound waves, preventing them from further motion.
• Hard surfaces ,such as ceramic tile, gypsum board, or wood, tend to reflect sound waves, causing echo‟.
• Dense, massive, materials, such as concrete or brick, tend to transmit sound waves through the material.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

 FUNDAMENTAL OF ACOUSTICS
FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
6. DECIBEL SCALE:
What is the decibel scale?
• The human ear is an extremely versatile and amazing hearing device.
• It has a clever in-built mechanism that reduces its own sensitivity as the sound level rises and it also has the remarkable
ability to handle an enormous range of sound power levels. It can hear the sound of a pin dropping close-by as well as the
roar of a jet engine far away.
• Although the ear can distinguish the rise in level between one or two pins dropping, it cannot distinguish between
10,000,000,000,000 pins and 10,000,000,000,001 pins or even 10,100,000,000,000 because it is not a linear device. It can,
however, distinguish the significant multiplying of the energy of the sound.
• When you measure noise levels with a sound level meter, you measure the intensity of noise in units called decibels (dB).
• A sound level meter uses a display with a range and resolution to approximate to the ear’s dynamic range, usually the upper
range rather than the quiet part.
• If you think about it, it would be very difficult to manufacture a sound level meter that had a linear performance, especially
bearing in the mind the range of noise sources to be measured in a work environment.
• It would be tricky to keep an eye on those 14 digits varying in front of you! So, to express levels of sound meaningfully in
numbers that are more manageable, a logarithmic scale is used, using 10 as the base, rather than a linear one. This scale is
called the decibel scale.
• On the decibel scale, the quietest audible sound (perceived near total silence) is 0 dB. A sound 10 times more powerful is 10
dB. A sound 100 times more powerful than near total silence is 20 dB. A sound 1,000 times more powerful than near total
silence is 30 dB and so on.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
6. DECIBEL SCALE:
What is the decibel scale?

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
6. DECIBEL SCALE:
SOUND WAVE PROPAGATION 1.Reflection
1.Reflection • When sound travels in a given medium, it strikes the surface
2.Refraction of another medium and bounces back in some other
3.Diffraction direction, this phenomenon is called the reflection of sound.
• The waves are called the incident and reflected sound waves

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
6. DECIBEL SCALE:
SOUND WAVE PROPAGATION 3.Diffraction
2.Refraction • The bending of waves around small obstacles and the
• Refraction of waves involves a change in the direction of spreading out of waves beyond small openings.
waves as they pass from one medium to another.
• Refraction of sound waves is most evident in situations in
which the sound wave passes through a medium with
gradually varying properties.
• For example, sound waves are known to refract when
traveling over water.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
7. MUSIC AND SPEECH FREQUENCIES EAR AND HEARING

4. Sound traasmission
• The speed of propagation of a sound wave is dependent upon the density of the medium
of transmission.
• Weather conditions (e.g., temperature, pressure, humidity, etc.) and certain geophysical
topographical features (e.g., mountains or hills) can obstructsound transmission.
Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish
 FUNDAMENTAL OF ACOUSTICS
FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS
7. MUSIC AND SPEECH FREQUENCIES

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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NOISE CURVES (NC)
• Noise Criteria (NC) curves are primarily used to rate indoor noise levels. ... Isolating the noise from external
sources and ensuring internal noises are low is essential for providing an acceptable acoustic environment
within a building
• Noise curves are a common way to measure and specify background noise in unoccupied buildings and
spaces.
• Their purpose is to produce a single-value representation of a complete sound spectrum

Permissible noise limits

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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NOISE CURVES (NC)

• The average person can hear sounds down to about

0 dB, the level of rustling leaves.
• Some people with very good hearing can hear
sounds down to -15 dB.
• If asoundreaches 85 dB or stronger, it can cause
permanent damage to your hearing.
• The amount of time you listen to a sound affects how
much damage it will cause.
• Your ear can stand a maximum of 85 decibel as an
average noise level over a day, before it is damaged by
the noise. Anything above 85 decibels can damage
your hearing.
• Normal conversation is typically situated in the 60 -
70 decibel range. Decibel is also known as dB or dB(A).

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ABSORPTION COEFFICIENT
• The sound absorption coefficient ‘a’ of a material is defined as the ratio of sound
energy absorbed by it to the total sound energy incident on it.

Absorption coefficient a= Sound energy absorbed by the surface

Total sound energy incident on it

• It is defined as the reciprocal of the area of the sound absorbing material which
absorbs the same amount of sound energy as that of 1 m²

NRC
The Noise Reduction Coefficient (commonly abbreviated NRC) is a scalar
representation of the amount of sound energy absorbed upon striking a
particular surface.

An NRC of 0 indicates perfect reflection

An NRC of 1 indicates perfect absorption.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish

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STC
• Sound Transmission Class is an integer rating of how well a building partition attenuates(reduce
the force, effect, or value of.) airborne sound.
• it is widely used to rate interior partitions, ceilings, floors, doors, windows and exterior wall
configurations.
• In short, STC gives you a rough idea how much sound a wall, for example, might stop.
• STC is the most common sound reduction measurement in use.

IIC
• Impact insulation class (or IIC) is an integer-number rating of
how well a building floor attenuates impact sounds, such as
footsteps.
• A larger number means more attenuation.
• The scale, like the decibel scale for sound, is logarithmic.

Building services II (AR8522) Unit IV-FUNDAMENTALS OF ACOUSTICS Prepared by Ar.Nish