Jonas Brunskog

The influence of finite cavities on the sound insulation of double-plate structures

Lightweight walls are often designed as frameworks of studs with plates on each side--a double-plate structure. The studs constitute boundaries for the cavities, thereby both affecting the sound transmission directly by short-circuiting the plates, and indirectly by disturbing the sound field between the plates. The paper presents a deterministic prediction model for airborne sound insulation including both effects of the studs. A spatial transform technique is used, taking advantage of the periodicity. The acoustic field inside the cavities is expanded by means of cosine-series. The transmission coefficient (angle-dependent and diffuse) and transmission loss are studied. Numerical examples are presented and comparisons with measurement are performed. The result indicates that a reasonably good agreement between theory and measurement can be achieved.

Speakers’ comfort and voice level variation in classrooms: Laboratory research

Teachers adjust their voice levels under different classroom acoustics conditions, even in the absence of background noise. Laboratory experiments have been conducted in order to understand further this relationship and to determine optimum room acoustic conditions for speaking. Under simulated acoustic environments, talkers do modify their voice levels linearly with the measure voice support, and the slope of this relationship is referred to as room effect. The magnitude of the room effect depends highly on the instruction used and on the individuals. Group-wise, the average room effect ranges from -0.93 dB/dB, with free speech, to -0.1 dB/dB with other less demanding communication tasks as reading and talking at short distances. The room effect for some individuals can be as strong as -1.7 dB/dB. A questionnaire investigation showed that the acoustic comfort for talking in classrooms, in the absence of background noise, is correlated to the decay times derived from an impulse response measured from the mouth to the ears of a talker, and that there is a maximum of preference for decay times between 0.4 and 0.5 s. Teachers with self-reported voice problems prefer higher decay times to speak in than their healthy colleagues.

Measurement and prediction of voice support and room gain in school classrooms

Objective acoustic parameters have been measured in 30 school classrooms. These parameters include usual descriptors of the acoustic quality from the listeners standpoint, such as reverberation time, speech transmission index, and background noise level, and two descriptors of the acoustic properties for a speaker: Voice support and room gain. This paper describes the measurement method for these two parameters and presents a prediction model for voice support and room gain derived from the diffuse field theory. The voice support for medium-sized classrooms with volumes between 100 and 250 m(3) and good acoustical quality lies in the range between -14 and -9 dB, whereas the room gain is in the range between 0.2 and 0.5 dB. The prediction model for voice support describes the measurements in the classrooms with a coefficient of determination of 0.84 and a standard deviation of 1.2 dB.

Room acoustic transition time based on reflection overlap

A transition time is defined based on the temporal overlap of reflected pulses in room impulse responses. Assuming specular reflections only, the temporal distance between adjacent reflections, which is proportional to the volume of a room, is compared with the characteristic width of a pulse at time t, which is mainly controlled by the absorption characteristics of the boundary surfaces of the room. Scattering, diffuse reflections, and diffraction, which facilitate the overlapping process, have not been taken into account. Measured impulse responses show that the transition occurs earlier in a room with nonuniform absorption and furniture than in a room that satisfies the underlying assumptions.

Analysis of Sound Transmission Loss of Double-Leaf Walls in the Low-Frequency Range Using the Finite Element Method:

The sound transmission loss of double walls in the low-frequency range is studied by means of structure-acoustic finite element analysis. The analysis simulates standard experiments to determine sound transmission loss of walls. The model is a detailed description of the geometry of the system, including both the double wall and the rooms acoustically coupled to the wall. The frequency range studied is in the 1/3-octave bands between 40 Hz and 200 Hz. Aparametric study is performed to investigate the influence on the sound transmission loss of various material and geometric properties of the wall and the dimensions of the connecting rooms. The model confirms the importance of primary structural resonance and the size of the connecting rooms in determining the degree of sound transmission loss. The primary structural resonance is mainly determined by the distance between the wall studs and the properties of the sheeting material. Wall length is also important; if the length is such that the wall studs of the last wall cavity are closer together than those of the other wall cavities, the primary structural resonance will be at a higher frequency, thereby decreasing sound transmission loss over a broader frequency range. Similar dimensions of the connecting rooms results in poor transmission loss, mainly at frequencies below 100 Hz (for the wall and room dimensions studied here).

Prediction Models of Impact Sound Insulation on Timber Floor Structures; A Literature Survey

To develop new types of lightweight wall and floor structures it is important to increase the knowledge of the transmission and radiation processes for such structures. To do so, detailed models based on deterministic and statistical assumptions may form a valuable tool. In lightweight floor structures, impact sound insulation is perhaps the most important factor to consider. This paper gives an overview of various solution strategies that may be useful in finding a prediction model for impact sound insulation.

The forced sound transmission of finite single leaf walls using a variational technique.

The single wall is the simplest element of concern in building acoustics, but there still remain some open questions regarding the sound insulation of this simple case. The two main reasons for this are the effects on the excitation and sound radiation of the wall when it has a finite size, and the fact that the wave field in the wall is consisting of two types of waves, namely forced waves due to the exciting acoustic field, and free bending waves due to reflections in the boundary. The aim of the present paper is to derive simple analytical formulas for the forced part of the airborne sound insulation of a single homogeneous wall of finite size, using a variational technique based on the integral-differential equation of the fluid loaded wall. The so derived formulas are valid in the entire audible frequency range. The results are compared with full numerical calculations, measurements and alternative theory, with reasonable agreement.

Measurement of the Acoustic Properties of Resilient, Statically Tensile Loaded Devices in Lightweight Structures

Resilient devices are commonly used in lightweight structures to decrease sound transmission in a broad frequency band. Applications of such devices may be found in e.g. resilient mounted ceilings in aeroplanes, ships and buildings. A measurement method to characterise the frequency dependency of the transfer stiffness and the input stiffness of the resilient device is presented. The mechanical characteristics of the measurement method are investigated. In addition, some resilient devices used in buildings are analysed with respect to acoustic properties. Parameters such as static load and mountings for the devices are considered and handled by means of statistical analysis.

Non-diffuseness of vibration fields in ribbed plates.

This paper presents numerical simulations of structural intensity in a rib-reinforced plate, investigating the diffuseness. Many prediction models of building and structural acoustics, such as statistical energy analysis or energy flow methods, assume the vibrational wave fields to be diffuse. However, the diffuseness assumption is not always valid. One such example is a rib-reinforced plate typically found in a lightweight floor with wooden joists. Other examples can be found in aircraft and ship structures. The structural intensity of a ribbed plate is computed at low to mid frequencies using the Fourier sine expansion of the transverse displacement of the plate. Hamiltons principle is used in combination with thin plate theory and Euler beam theory. The model takes into account interactions between components. The Fourier sine modes are re-formulated as plane waves in a radial coordinate system, which can express the structural intensity in terms of the angular component of the modes. In the simulations, ensemble averages and rain-on-the-roof excitations are used. The numerical results show that the structural intensity varies significantly as the angle of propagation changes and cannot be assumed to form a diffuse field.

Thresholds for the slope ratio in determining transition time and quantifying diffuser performance in situ

This study is concerned with an objective measure called the slope ratio that can detect acoustic defects due to unexpected pressure increases such as strong reflections and coincidental constructive interference. The slope ratio is the ratio of the instantaneous slope to the mean slope in a decay curve. The slope ratio was suggested for determining the room acoustic transition time experimentally, but its threshold criteria have not been thoroughly investigated. The thresholds for the slope ratio, particularly for applications such as determining the room acoustic transition time and quantifying in situ diffuseness, are examined for various room impulse responses. For the tested rooms, a slope ratio threshold of 11 gives the most consistent and systematic results.