The Reverberation Time and Equivalent Sound Absorption Area of Rooms in Dwellings

Abstract

The study gives the results of the measurements of the reverberation time in 11,687 rooms, of which 11,457 are furnished (8,246 bedrooms, 3,211 living rooms), and 230 unfurnished. All the rooms have thick walls and ceilings, and a heavy floor covering. The reverberation times measured are quite similar in bedrooms and living rooms within the same size range, and decrease fairly uniformly as the frequency increases. Moreover, in each frequency band the greater the volume of the room, the greater the reverberation time.

The results of this extensive fieldwork allow us to predict accurately the reverberation time in these kinds of spaces as a function of their size and the frequency. These data may be useful for improving the accuracy of calculation models to estimate the reverberation time of enclosed spaces. The equivalent sound absorption area of these rooms was also calculated.

Keywords

Reverberation time equivalent sound absorption area furnished and unfurnished rooms

References

EN ISO 140 – 4:1998, Acoustics–Measurement of sound insulation in buildings and of building elements – Part 4: Field measurements of airborne sound insulation between rooms. (ISO 140–4:1998).

EN ISO 140 – 7:1998, Acoustics–Measurement of sound insulation in buildings and of building elements – Part 7: Field measurements of impact sound insulation of floors. (ISO 140–7:1998).

EN ISO 140 – 5:1998, Acoustics–Measurement of sound insulation in buildings and of building elements – Part 5: Field measurements of airborne sound insulation of façade elements and façades. (ISO 140–5:1998).

ISO 354:2003, Acoustics – Measurement of sound absorption in a reverberation room..

Jacobsen

, A note on acoustic decay measurements, Journal of Sound and Vibration, 115(1987)163–170.

Jacobsen

Rindel

J.H.

, Time reversed decay measurements. Journal of Sound and Vibration 117 (1987) 187–190.

Kob

Vorländer

Band filters and short reverberation times. ACUSTICA. Acta acústica 86(2000)350–357.

Davy

J.L.

, The variance of reverberation time measurements due to loudspeaker position variation. Journal of Sound and Vibration 132(1989)403–409.

Vorländer

Bietz

, Comparison of methods for measuring reverberation time, Acustica 80(1994) 119.

10.

ISO 3382:1997, Acoustics – Measurement of the reverberation time of rooms with reference to other acoustical parameters..

11.

EN 12354–6:2003. Building Acoustics. Estimation of acoustic performance of buildings from the performance of elements. Part 6: Sound absorption in enclosed spaces..

12.

Malusky

Gibbs

B.M.

The effect of construction material, contents and room geometry on the sound field in dwellings at low frequencies. Applied Acoustics. (2004). Vol 65, pp 31–44.