Republic of the Philippines
CEBU TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY
MAIN CAMPUS
COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Electronics Engineering Department
ECE 525
Broadcast Engineering and Acoustics
Acoustic Design
Submitted by:
Jacinto, Therese Francis R.
BSECE 5-G
Submitted to:
Engr. Joel B. Tadle
Instructor
PREFACE
In this modern age, people tend to find ways to make their living convenient and
comfortable. They design to eliminate possibilities of inconvenience in different aspects of
their preferences.
One of the hated inconvenience of people is the noise. Anything that will contribute
to this nuisance brings people to design rooms and places that will minimize and possibly
eliminate the threat relating to noise. One of the few aspects of noise is the reverberation
time.
In this acoustic design, we will be choosing a specific room to be tested for its
reverberation time. We will also check out the formulas to solve the real reverberation time
and evaluate, whether the room needs more adjustments to lessen the inconvenience of a
noisy room.
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Table of Contents
List of Figures ................................................................................................................... iii
List of Tables .................................................................................................................... iv
List of Equations .............................................................................................................. iv
Introduction ........................................................................................................................1
Acoustics Theory ................................................................................................................2
Acoustical Formulas ..........................................................................................................3
Table of Absorption Coefficients ......................................................................................4
Mathematical Computations.............................................................................................5
Sketches / Drawings ...........................................................................................................7
Floor Plan ........................................................................................................................ 7
Ceiling Plan ..................................................................................................................... 7
Details of the Walls ......................................................................................................... 8
Isometric View ................................................................................................................ 8
Conclusions .........................................................................................................................9
References .........................................................................................................................10
List of Figures
Figure 1: Stock Room Floor Plan ....................................................................................... 7
Figure 2: Stock Room Ceiling Plan .................................................................................... 7
Figure 3: Window ............................................................................................................... 8
Figure 4: Door ..................................................................................................................... 8
Figure 5: Stock Room Isometric View ............................................................................... 8
iii
List of Tables
Table 1: Table of Absorption Coefficients of Materials ..................................................... 4
List of Equations
Equation 1: Sabine's Formula ............................................................................................. 3
Equation 2: Norris-Eyring Formula .................................................................................... 3
iv
Introduction
Good acoustic design needs the technicalities and knowledge of the physics of
sound, engineering aspect of the materials used, the diverse and unique characteristics of
the kind of audio concerned with the room or place and its application to create the facility
of choice [1]. Rooms are to be designed based on what their purposes should be. Some
should have clear, warm audio. Others should have less possibility of sound travel.
The purpose of room acoustical design is to control the propagation, reflection and
attenuation of sound within a space [2]:
Direct sound
Reverberant sound (reflections)
Useful and harmful reflections
Sound attenuation and absorption
Diffusion
There are different aspects of sound that we should be able to control to what the
facilities are made up for. For example, concert halls should be more reverberant, compared
to other facilities, that are made up for human speech [3]. Speech intelligibility is highly
needed in lecture halls, classrooms and even inside the houses. Different acoustic design
criteria are followed in the various facilities because we cannot just have a highly
reverberant classroom, where the teachers and students cannot decipher what they are
discussing about.
In this acoustic design, we aim to calculate the exact and precise reverberation time
produced in the chosen room through the usage of the different acoustics theories, sound
absorption coefficients of different materials comprising the room, mathematical
computations and the formulas that should be accurately applied to the variables being
collected and noted. Evaluations will then be given to check if the room is correct designed
acoustically and if it served its purpose of being a speech-oriented place or musically-
inclined facility.
1
Acoustics Theory
According to [4], acoustics is the branch of physics that deals with the study of
mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound,
ultrasound and infrasound. There are aspects of acoustics that are very essential in
designing a room or facility, scientific studies, music and even in correlation with other
fields of study, such as noise control for building design and even in house design.
Some of these aspects are the frequency, pitch, loudness, timbre, duration and
rhythm. Although, these are mostly connected with music, they are still part of the basic
acoustics theory.
However, in room acoustics, the reverberation time is the evaluation, whether the
room or facility involved, has too much echo and sound level [5]. Reverberation time is
the time needed for the sound to fade away or decay in an enclosed space [6]. Sounds
produced in a room bounces or reflects repeatedly on surfaces such as floors, ceilings, walls
and even furniture and appliances. When these reflections mix up, reverberation happens.
In acoustic designing, reverberation time does not necessarily should be less than 1
second. As what the introduction is conveying, enclosed spaces have different purposes,
be it may music or speech. For example, concert halls should be more reverberant,
compared to other facilities, that are made up for human speech [3].
The reverberation time of a room is described as the time it takes for sound to decay
by 60dB. For example, if the sound in a room took 20 seconds to decay from 100dB to
40dB, the reverberation time would be 20 seconds. This can also be written as the T60 time.
However, it is mostly difficult to accurately measure the T60 time as it may not be
possible to generate a sound level that is consistent and stable enough, especially in large
rooms or spaces [6].
There are different formulas that we can use in solving for the reverberation time
of a planned room or space. This will help us in designing the interior of the enclosure,
whether we want a higher reverberation for music or lower reverberation for normal
settings or speech.
2
Acoustical Formulas
In solving for the optimum reverberation time of an enclosed space, we have the
following formulas that can we can use to be able to know if our planned spaces will be
able to provide the reverberation that we wanted for its purpose. Remember to have a
standard table of sound absorption coefficients, in order to get the most accurate optimum
reverberation time.
0.161𝑉𝑚 0.049𝑉𝑓
𝑇60 = 𝑇60 =
𝐴 𝐴
𝑉𝑚 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 (𝑐𝑢𝑏𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠)
𝑉𝑓 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 (𝑐𝑢𝑏𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑡)
𝐴 = 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
Equation 1: Sabine's Formula
The Sabine’s formula applies much better to rooms, whose dimensions are larger
than the sound wavelengths and whose absorption is uniformly distributed all throughout
the room [7].
The other formula that can be used for solving for the optimum reverberation time
is the Norris-Eyring formula.
0.161𝑉𝑚 0.049𝑉𝑓
𝑇60 = 𝑇60 =
−𝑆𝑚 ln(1 − 𝛼) −𝑆𝑓 ln(1 − 𝛼)
𝑉𝑚 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 (𝑐𝑢𝑏𝑖𝑐 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠)
𝑉𝑓 = 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 (𝑐𝑢𝑏𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑡)
𝑆𝑚 = 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 (𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑠)
𝑆𝑓 = 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑎𝑟𝑒𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 (𝑠𝑞𝑢𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑒𝑒𝑡)
𝛼 = 𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝑟𝑜𝑜𝑚 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡
Equation 2: Norris-Eyring Formula
The equation is governing the decay of uniformly diffused sound in a room for an
average absorption greater than 0.2. Norris-Eyring formula is based on the mean free path
between reflections [8].
3
Table of Absorption Coefficients
Nature of surface Sound Absorption Coefficients at Frequency(Hz)
125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Acoustic tile, rigid mount 0.2 0.4 0.7 0.8 0.6 0.4
Acoustic tile, suspended 0.5 0.7 0.6 0.7 0.7 0.5
Acoustical plaster 0.1 0.2 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.7
Ordinary plaster, on lath 0.2 0.15 0.1 0.05 0.04 0.05
Doors, solid wood panels 0.1 0.1 0.05 0.04 0.07 0.1
Plywood sheet, 1/4" on studs 0.6 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.1
Concrete block, unpainted 0.4 0.4 0.3 0.3 0.4 0.3
Concrete block, painted 0.1 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.1 0.1
Concrete, poured 0.01 0.01 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.03
Brick 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.07
Vinyl tile on concrete 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.02
Heavy carpet on concrete 0.02 0.06 0.15 0.4 0.6 0.6
Heavy carpet on felt backing 0.1 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7
Platform floor, wooden 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.15 0.1
Ordinary window glass 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.07 0.04
Heavy plate glass 0.2 0.06 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.02
Draperies, medium velour 0.07 0.3 0.5 0.7 0.7 0.6
Upholstered seating, unoccupied 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.7 0.6 0.6
Upholstered seating, occupied 0.4 0.6 0.8 0.9 0.9 0.9
Wood seating, unoccupied 0.02 0.03 0.03 0.06 0.06 0.05
Wooden pews, occupied 0.4 0.4 0.7 0.7 0.8 0.7
Table 1: Table of Absorption Coefficients of Materials
This will be the table that we will be basing our sound absorption coefficients so
that we can solve our chosen room’s optimum reverberation time.
4
Mathematical Computations
The chosen room for this acoustic design is a stock room. It is a newly-built and
freshly painted room. It is also empty. Therefore, we can expect that the reverberation time
of this room should be less than 1.5 seconds since it is only used for storage and speech
intelligibility between the people talking inside the room [9]. In this design, we will be
using the Sabine’s formula.
Solve for the volume of the room.
𝑉𝑚 = 𝐿 × 𝑊 × 𝐻
𝑉𝑚 = 3 𝑚 × 3.5 𝑚 × 3𝑚
𝑉𝑚 = 31.5 𝑚3
Solve for the surface areas of the floor, ceiling and walls.
Floor and Ceiling Narrow Walls
𝑆 =𝐿×𝑊 𝑆 =𝑊×𝐻
𝑆 = 2 × (3 𝑚 × 3.5 𝑚) 𝑆 = 2 × (3 𝑚 × 3 𝑚)
𝑆 = 21 𝑚2 𝑆 = 18 𝑚2
Wide Walls
𝑆 =𝑊×𝐻
𝑆 = 2 × (3.5 𝑚 × 3 𝑚)
𝑆 = 21 𝑚2
Solve for the surface areas of the window and door placed on the narrow walls.
Window Door
𝑆 =𝐿×𝑊 𝑆 =𝐿×𝑊
𝑆 = 1.5 𝑚 × 1 𝑚 𝑆 = 1.9 𝑚 × 0.75 𝑚
𝑆 = 1.5 𝑚2 𝑆 = 1.425 𝑚2
The areas of the window and door will be subtracted to the total area of the narrow
walls since they are placed in that side of the wall
5
Net Area of the Narrow Walls
𝑆 = 18 𝑚2 − 1.5 𝑚2 − 1.425 𝑚2
𝑆 = 15.075 𝑚2
We will multiply their respective sound absorption coefficients at 1000 Hz to the
surface areas.
Floor (Vinyl tile on concrete) Wide Walls (Concrete block,
painted)
𝐴 = 10.5 𝑚2 × 0.03
𝐴 = 21 𝑚2 × 0.07
𝐴 = 0.315
𝐴 = 1.47
Ceiling (Concrete block, painted)
Window (Ordinary window
𝐴 = 10.5 𝑚2 × 0.07 glass)
𝐴 = 0.735 𝐴 = 1.5 𝑚2 × 0.1
Narrow Walls (Concrete block, 𝐴 = 0.15
painted)
Door (Doors, solid wood panels)
𝐴 = 15.075 𝑚2 × 0.07
𝐴 = 1.425 𝑚2 × 0.04
𝐴 = 1.055
𝐴 = 0.057
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴 = 0.315 + 0.735 + 1.055 + 1.47 + 0.15 + 0.057
𝑇𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝐴 = 3.782
Using Sabine’s formula, we can calculate the optimum reverberation time of the
stock room since none of the sound absorption coefficients are greater than 0.2 to warrant
this design to use the Norris-Eyring formula.
0.161𝑉𝑚
𝑇60 =
𝐴
0.161 × 31.5
𝑇60 =
3.782
𝑇60 = 1.34 𝑠𝑒𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑑𝑠
The calculated reverberation time satisfies our goal that the stock room should have
less than 1.5 seconds as optimum reverberation time.
6
1 Sketches / Drawings
The chosen room for this acoustic room is a stock room. It is newly-built and
freshly paint, with a single window and door.
Floor Plan
Figure 1: Stock Room Floor Plan
Ceiling Plan
Figure 2: Stock Room Ceiling Plan
7
Details of the Walls
Figure 3: Window
Figure 4: Door
Isometric View
Figure 5: Stock Room Isometric View
8
Conclusions
In room acoustics, we should take note of the purpose of the facility or room to be
built. Whether they are for music or for speech or for both, we should know that there are
ranges of optimum reverberation time for the specific purpose.
The chosen room for this acoustic design is a stock room. It is where we store those
materials that are to be used in the future or that were already used and were waiting to be
thrown out by the owners. It doesn’t necessarily require to be a low or high reverberant
room since it is only for storage. With this, we only limit our reverberant time to less than
1.5 seconds.
With our computations, we were able to solve our optimum reverberation time and
satisfied our limit of not going beyond 1.5 seconds.
The stock room is correctly designed and just right for its purpose.
9
8 References
[1] Goshen College, "Principles of Acoustic Design," [Online]. Available:
https://gcmusiccenter.org/about/acoustics/principles-acoustic-design/. [Accessed 15
March 2020].
[2] M. Remes, "Building Physics Design 2 - Acoustical Design," Helimaki Acoustics,
2015.
[3] City Soundproofing, "Understanding Noise Control," [Online]. Available:
http://www.citysoundproofing.com/index.php/library/30-basic-principles-of-room-
acoustics. [Accessed 15 March 2020].
[4] Wikipedia, "Acoustics," [Online]. Available:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustics. [Accessed 15 March 2020].
[5] Noise Engineers, "Reverberation Time - Room Acoustics," [Online]. Available:
https://noiseengineers.com/reverberation-time-room-acoustics/. [Accessed 15 March
2020].
[6] C. Roberts, "Noise News," [Online]. Available:
https://www.cirrusresearch.co.uk/blog/2018/04/what-is-reverberation-time-and-how-
it-is-calculated/. [Accessed 21 March 2020].
[7] L. Baranek, Concert Halls and Opera Houses, 2004.
[8] J. M. Ampoloquio, Self-Sufficient Guide to Electronic Communications
Engineering, 2005.
[9] "Hyperphysics," [Online]. Available: http://hyperphysics.phy-
astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Acoustic/revtim.html. [Accessed 23 March 2020].
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