Engineering and the Environment, University of Southampton

Knowledge and understanding
Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to:

• To show familiarity with various noise sources in buildings.
• To apply prediction methods to assess the transmission of noise in buildings and its mitigation.
• To understand standard measurement methods that are used in building acoustics.
• To show familiarity with the various indicators used for auditorium acoustics and the usual requirements for different types of room.
• To understand the role of reflections, absorption and scattering in rooms.
• To show familiarity with the use of prediction methods for room acoustics.

Cognitive (thinking) skills
Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to:

• Select appropriate building constructions for the solution of practical noise problems and evaluate their performance.

Practical, subject specific skills
Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to:

• Make basic room acoustic measurements.
• Use room acoustics software to model simple rooms.

Key transferable skills
Having successfully completed the module, you will be able to :

• Write a report suitable for a client or manager.

The aims of this module are to:

• Apply noise control principles to the acoustics of buildings.
• Provide an introduction to the acoustic design of auditoria.

• To explain typical acoustic requirements in buildings.
• To describe the main sources of noise in buildings and their transmission.
• To introduce the main mitigation measures for noise in buildings.
• To describe the criteria used for assessing the acoustics of auditoria.
• To introduce calculation methods for auditorium acoustics.

Building acoustics

• Sound insulation (laboratory tests, in-situ tests, typical building constructions, flanking transmission, box-in-box construction)
• Standardised spectra Rw and Dw
• Absorption and reverberation time (typical absorption spectra, requirements for different purposes, e.g. schools)
• Background noise criteria (NR, PNC)
• Sources of external noise (rain noise, traffic etc)
• Heating, ventilation and air-conditioning noise (sources, transmission, duct attenuators, natural ventilation)
• Vibration isolation (of noisy equipment, of buildings)
Auditorium acoustics
• Absorption of seats, audience, other materials, variable absorption
• Reverberation (Sabine, Eyring, EDT)
• Other indicators (clarity C80, D50, lateral energy fraction, sound level)
• Scattering and diffusion
• Requirements for different rooms (concert halls, theatres, opera houses, multi-purpose halls)
• Sound source characteristics (musical instruments, speech, singing; sound power, directivity)
• Prediction methods (image sources, ray tracing, beam/cone tracing, finite differences, modal methods, physical scale modelling)

2 lectures a week (double period).

Secondary text

Auditorium Acoustics and Architectural Design, M Barron, Taylor & Francis
ISBN-13: 978-0419245100 (e-book)
2nd edition, 2009

Acoustic Absorbers and Diffusers, T J Cox
P D'Antonio, Taylor & Francis
ISBN-13: 978-0415471749 (e-book)
2 edition, 2009

Sound Insulation: Theory into Practice, C Hopkins, Butterworth Heinemann
ISBN-13: 978-0750665261 (e-book)
1 edition, 2008

Building Acoustics, T E Vigran, Taylor & Francis
ISBN-13: 978-0415428538 (e-book)
1 edition, 2008

Noise Control Engineering, L L Beranek
I L Ver (Eds), John Wiley
ISBN 0471617512
1992