Architectural acoustics

 Architectural acoustics
• Relationship between sound produced in a
space and its listeners, of particular concern
in the design of concert halls and
auditoriums.
• Architectural acoustics may be defined as
the technology of designing spaces,
structures, and mechanical systems to meet
hearing needs. With proper design,
“wanted” sounds can be heard properly and

Introduction “ unwanted “ sound or “noise “, can be

attenuated to the point where it dose not
cause annoyance.
• All acoustics situation have three common
elements – source, transmission path, and
receiver.
 Acoustics is the branch of physics that
deals with the study of all mechanical
waves in gases, liquids, and solids
including topics such
as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infra
sound.
Architectural acoustics (also known
Definition and as room acoustics and building
acoustics) is the science and engineering
Related terms of achieving a good sound within a
building
The word "acoustic" is derived from
the Greek word ἀκουστικός (akoustikos),
meaning "of or for hearing, ready to
hear
  Sound is a physical wapresure a
mechanical vibration, or simply a series of
pressure variations, in an elastic medium.
For airborne sound, the medium is air. For
structure-borne sound the medium is

What is Sound? concrete, steel, wood, glass and

combinations of all of these.

 A pair of healthy young ears with a

detection range of 20 to 20, 000 Hz.
  A Mechanical wave is a wave that is an
oscilate of matter, and therefore transfers
energy through a medium
 Vibration is a mechanical phenomenon
whereby oscillations occur about
an equilibrium point-----The word comes from
Latin vibrationem ("shaking, brandishing")
 Sound is a vibration that typically propagates
as an audiblewave of pressure, through
a transmission medium such as a gas, liquid or
solid.
 Ultrasound is sound
waves with frequencies higher than the upper
Related Terms audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is
not different from "normal" (audible) sound in
its physical properties, except in that humans
cannot hear it
 Infrasound, sometimes referred to as low-
frequency sound, is sound that is lower in
frequency than 20 Hz or cycles per second, the
Propagation – transmission or "normal" limit of human hearing. Hearing
motion becomes gradually less sensitive as frequency
decreases, so for humans to perceive
infrasound, the sound pressure must be
sufficiently high.
 Frequency-describes the number of waves that pass
a fixed place in a given amount of time.
 FRECUENCY

Sound Theory  The number of times the cycles of

compression and rarefaction on air (
or to and for vibrations that the
source) makes in given unit of time or
1 second is described as the
Frequency of the sound (or vibration)
 The hertz (symbol: Hz) is the derived
unit of frequency in the International
Frequency System of Units (SI) and is defined as
one cycle per second.
 In sound, Frequency is often referred
to by a term borrowed from musical
concepts--- pitch. The higher the
frequency the higher the pitch, and
vice versa.

 Human speaking voice has range of

appx. 100 to 600 Hz
  Sound travels at differnt velocities
depending upon the medium. In air, at
sea level, sound velocity is 344 m/sec
or 1130 fps. This corresponds to 770
Medium Meters per Feet per
Second Second miles per hour (mph) or 478
kilometers per hour (kmph)
• Air 344 1130
• Water 1410 4625
 Slow indeed when compared to light at
• Wood 3300 10,825 186,000 miles per second. Since sound
• Brick VELOCITY OF
3600 11,800 travels not only in the air but also
through parts of the structure.
SOUND
• Concrete 3700 12,100  Sound travels much faster in liquids
• Steel WAVEPROPAGATION
4900 16,000 and solids than it does in the air.
• Glass 5000 16,400
• Aluminu 5800 19,000  Seed of Sound sound travels much
m slower than the speed of light

 Temperature dose have a significant

@ 22.2°C @ 72°F
The speed
effect of speed.
on the sound in air is given by
1.40 Ps/p
Ps= atmospheric pressure
ę = its density
 • The wavelength of a sound may be
defined as the distance between similar
points on successive waves or the
distance the sound travels in one cycle
vibration, That is, in 1/second, is called
its wavelegth
• Express in GREEK letter lamba

• Wave form – wave form of sound wave

describes, by means of a graphical
Wavelength and representaion, the precise nature of a
complete to and-fro osillation of the
Types of vibrating particles in a sound field. Thus
below is a graph of the simple harmonic
Propagation wave form of the sound generated ny
gently struck tuning fork.

• The displacements are represented

as transverse to the time axis
• The actual displacement of the
particles in the sound field are
parallel to the direction of
propagation of the sound wave –or
the wave motion is Longitudinal
  The most elementary type of vibration
is that which has a single frequency and
is called simple harmonic motion. It is
the form of vibration which characterize
a “pure”tone; for example, that given
by a tuning fork which has been struck
gently.

Sound Pressure

• The form of this vibration and the

corresponding form of the pressure
variation which is propagated out-
wardly in the surrounding medium as
a sound waves
 Sound intensity defined as tge rate of flow of
sound energy through a unit area at that point,
the unit area being perpendicular to the
specified direction.
 Expressed in watts per square centimeters.

Sound Intensity
Source Peak power in
watts
• Conversationna 0.002
l speech female
• male 0.004
• clarinet 0.05
• bass viol 0.16
• piano 0.27
• trumpet 0.31
• trombone 6.00
 INVERSE SQUARE LAW -The Inverse
Square Law teaches us that for every
doubling of the distance from
the sound source in a free field
situation, the sound intensity will
diminish by 6 decibels. ... The intensity
of the sound is inversely proportional to
the square of the distance of the
wavefront from the signal source

Inverse Square  The sound intensity from a point source of

sound will obey the inverse square law if
Law there are no reflections or reverberation.
A plot of this intensity drop shows that it
drops off rapidly.
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