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Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces

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A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Acoustics and Vibrations".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 March 2021) | Viewed by 26654

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Prof. Dr. Kimihiro Sakagami

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Guest Editor

Environmental Acoustics Laboratory, Department of Architecture, Kobe University, Kobe 657-8501, Japan
Interests: acoustical materials; architectural and environmental acoustics and theoretical acoustics
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Prof. Toshiki Hanyu

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Guest Editor

Nihon University, Chiba, Japan

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The purpose of this Special Issue is to report on the latest research and development works carried out in the field of room acoustics aiming at non-performing public spaces. Room acoustics have been developed for many years mainly to develop the design of performing spaces such as concert auditoria, theatres, etc. However, in the last few decades, with growing demands for better acoustic environment in non-performing spaces, especially public spaces, studies on the acoustic design of non-performing spaces have been gradually increasing. Non-performing public spaces include schools, public libraries, offices, shopping malls, railway stations, airports, etc., each of which has different requirements for its acoustic environment, and they are often different from those for performing spaces. Since those non-performing public spaces are used by more people in their everyday situations, its acoustic environment is of paramount importance for a part of the quality of life.

Papers related (but not limited) to advances, development, analysis and/or optimization and design of room acoustic environment are encouraged to submit to this Special Issue. Below is the list of examples of topics in this Special Issue. Papers submitted to this Special Issue will be selected via a rigorous peer-review procedure.

Theoretical and experimental studies on room acoustic properties of non-performace public spaces
Room acoustic design of non-performace public spaces
Surveys of acoustic environment of non-performace public spaces
Indoor soundscape studies on non-performace public spaces
Proposals for acoustic environment of non-performace public spaces

Prof. Kimihiro Sakagami
Prof. Toshiki Hanyu
Guest Editors

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Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Applied Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (10 papers)

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Editorial

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2 pages, 161 KiB

Open AccessEditorial

Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-Performing Public Spaces

by Kimihiro Sakagami and Toshiki Hanyu

Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(1), 188; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app13010188 - 23 Dec 2022

Viewed by 829

Abstract

Room acoustics is one of the most important areas of acoustics and is the study of acoustics in predominantly enclosed spaces such as rooms in the built environment [...] Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

Research

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16 pages, 4892 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Acoustic Way to Support Japanese Children’s Effective English Learning in School Classrooms

by Naoko Evans, Miki Kaneko, Ivan Seleznov, Taiki Shigematsu and Ken Kiyono

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(13), 6062; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11136062 - 29 Jun 2021

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2117

Abstract

In this paper, the importance of implementing good acoustic conditions in classrooms using sound amplification systems is investigated to support more effective English education for elementary school children. To date, the failure of educating English as a second language at Japanese schools has been demonstrated by poor English conversation ability of those who completed a compulsory six-year English language course at Japanese junior-high and high schools (age 12–18). To amend the situation, teaching English became compulsory at grade three (age 8–9) and above at most Japanese elementary schools in the 2020 academic year. We conducted acoustic measurements of two types of sound amplification systems, a pair of PC loudspeakers and another with a loudspeaker array, in a typical classroom at an elementary school in Japan. We also analysed English listening test results of 216 Japanese native children (age 11–12) who were learning English in their usual classes in Japan, to compare the effects of those two systems. Results of logistic regression analysis adjusted by the discrimination difficulty of word pairs demonstrated the statistically significant association between correct answer rate of the English tests and classroom acoustic factors. Although, on average, upgrading the sound amplification system had positive effects on the correct answer rate, it also had a negative impact when the word pairs had English phoneme contrasts that do not appear in Japanese phoneme structure. Combined with the acoustic measurements’ results, it was also revealed that heterogeneous sound fields that depend on seat positions could be compensated using sound amplification systems with loudspeaker arrays. Our findings suggest that improvement of both acoustic quality and teaching methods is required for children to acquire English communication skills effectively in their classroom. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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14 pages, 2966 KiB

Open AccessArticle

An Experimental Study of the Performance of a Crossed Rib Diffuser in Room Acoustic Control

by Takumi Yoshida, Yasutaka Ueda, Norimasa Mori and Yumi Matano

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(9), 3781; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11093781 - 22 Apr 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1986

Abstract

This paper presents a crossed rib diffuser (CRD) as an effective tool for room acoustic control. We performed an experimental investigation of its effectiveness using a specimen manufactured for this trial. The CRD is constructed by overlapping two one-dimensional (1D) periodic rib diffusers with different specifications so that they are crossed at non-right angles. The CRD achieves a higher scattering coefficient than 1D periodic rib diffusers in a wide band while maintaining the simple and friendly design of 1D periodic rib diffusers applicable to various architectural spaces. Moreover, inserting an absorbing layer between upper and lower ribs of the CRD, (CRD-A) yields a high broadband absorption coefficient. We first evaluated the random-incidence scattering coefficient of CRD using a 1/5 scaled model in comparison with those of 1D periodic diffusers assessed with a numerical method. Then, absorption coefficients for the CRD and the CRD-A were measured using a reverberation room. Subsequently, an experiment on a small meeting room with a 1D periodic rib diffuser, the CRD and the CRD-A was conducted to present performance of the CRD in room acoustic control. Impulse response measurements and evaluations of reverberation parameters (

T_{20}

and

E D T

) and speech clarity (

D_{50}

) were conducted. Additionally, we present differences in structure of reflected sounds found for the flat wall, the CRD and the CRD-A visually using a four-channel sound field microphone. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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21 pages, 4964 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Subjective Effects of Sound Absorption and Investigation of Reverberation Times in Modern Japanese Dwellings

by Kazuma Hoshi, Toshiki Hanyu, Ryoichi Suzuki and Daisuke Watanabe

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(6), 2709; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11062709 - 17 Mar 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2168

Abstract

This study aimed to reveal the influence of sound absorption in general dwellings on the subjective evaluation of acoustics. First, a subjective experiment was conducted using a full-scale room model. The results indicate that the feelings of silence and serenity can be experienced at absorption coefficients above 0.17, particularly above 0.25. Additionally, we used the recorded binaural sounds for a subjective test instead of using a full-scale room model. This trial showed that the reverberance, feeling of silence, and feeling of serenity can also be evaluated using a headphone listening test. We also measured the reverberation times and recorded the sound environments in three bedrooms, three living and dining (LD) rooms, and three child rooms in modern Japanese dwellings. The average absorption coefficients of the LD and child rooms were lower than 0.17, in the range of 500 Hz to 4 kHz. Therefore, we analyzed the subjective effect of absorption through a psychological test using binaural recorded sounds. The bedrooms with absorption coefficients of 0.18–0.23 were significantly less reverberant, quieter, and more serene than the other rooms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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21 pages, 4689 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Acoustic Environment and Noise Exposure in Fitness Halls

by Omaimah Ali Al-Arja

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(18), 6349; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10186349 - 11 Sep 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3399

Abstract

People seek health and leisure in gyms and fitness halls. In this study, interior acoustics including reverberation time (T) and activity noise levels were studied in 20 indoor sports and gymnasium (IS & G) halls in Amman, Jordan. Interviews and questionnaires were also applied to assess the subjective comfort levels of the acoustic environment in these IS & G halls. The measured values were correlated with the subjective evaluations. The range of measured T values was 1.09–5.38 s. The activity noise level, which was measured with L_A,eq over 50 min of activity, ranged between 80.0 and 110.0 dB(A). The average personal noise exposure for instructors was 92.6 dB(A), ranging from 81.0 to 108.0 dB(A), whereas 90% of the measurement results were above the occupational exposure limit (OEL) of 85.0 dB(A), and 40% of instructors were potentially exposed to excessive noise levels. The subjective rating of listening conditions correlated significantly with the reverberation time rather than noise level (p < 0.01). In conclusion, the results from this study show that noise levels generated in the studied IS & G halls present a possible workplace noise hazard. Raising awareness of the risk of hearing problems among instructors working in IS & G halls is highly recommended. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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13 pages, 1875 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Application of a Prediction Model for Ambient Noise Levels and Acoustical Capacity for Living Rooms in Nursing Homes Hosting Older People with Dementia

by Paul Devos, Francesco Aletta, Pieter Thomas, Tara Vander Mynsbrugge, Mirko Petrovic, Dominique Van de Velde, Patricia De Vriendt and Dick Botteldooren

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(12), 4205; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10124205 - 19 Jun 2020

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2355

Abstract

Acoustic comfort is becoming an increasingly important dimension for practitioners in the context of design of care facilities for older adults, namely nursing homes. Defining the quality of these spaces based on room acoustics criteria alone might be challenging if aspects related to their functioning (e.g., speech-based activities) are not taken into account. The acoustical capacity concept has been previously proposed for eating establishments as a way to provide a quality assessment based on both physical characteristics of the space and the perceived quality of verbal communication. In this study, a revised version of a prediction model for ambient noise levels based on occupancy and an estimation of acoustical capacity are proposed for nursing homes hosting people with dementia, and the corresponding parameters of slope, group size and absorption per person are optimized for the specific application, using a Nursing Home in Flanders (Belgium) participating to the AcustiCare project as case study. Results show that, compared to normal eating establishments, lower absorption per person values and higher group size values should be used in nursing homes to reduce errors in ambient noise levels prediction. Furthermore, using a retrofit intervention carried out in the living room of the Nursing Home, the enhanced acoustical capacity of the space was analysed. Results, in this case, show that, prior to the retrofit intervention, the acoustical capacity was already exceeded with average occupancy (i.e., saturated in normal functioning conditions), while the reduction in reverberation time achieved with the retrofit increased considerably the acoustical capacity of the space, shifting the quality of verbal communication in the living room from insufficient to satisfactory. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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18 pages, 2162 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Investigation of the Acoustical Environment in A Shopping Mall and Its Correlation to the Acoustic Comfort of the Workers

by Nasim Alnuman and Mhd Ziad Altaweel

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(3), 1170; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10031170 - 09 Feb 2020

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 4915

Abstract

Noise in shopping centers and restaurants can reduce intelligibility and affect the comfort of the employees working for long periods in such environments. In this study, the interior acoustics of a shopping mall are studied by measuring the reverberation time (RT), with no occupation, and the equivalent sound pressure levels (L_Aeq), with occupations at different times of the day, over a period of one week. The measurements were done at different locations, chosen based on their usage (shopping areas, entrances, food courts, and playing area). The values are correlated to the subjective acoustic comfort and the experience of loudness of the staff working at these locations, as measured through a questionnaire. The average RT values that were measured ranged between 0.9 s in the food court and 1.4 s for the main entrance. The L_Aeq was measured with a minimum of 58 dB in the shopping area in the early morning and a maximum of 83 dB in the playing area in the evening. The results showed an increase in the L_Aeq for the afternoon and evening in comparison with the early morning and midday time (p < 0.05); similarly, the sound levels for the weekends were higher than the weekdays (p < 0.05). The questionnaire results showed that headaches and difficulties in communicating with others (speech intelligibility) are the most important problems induced by the noise in shopping malls, occurring for 47.1% and 38.2% of respondents, respectively. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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14 pages, 8209 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Interaction between Sound and Thermal Influences on Patient Comfort in the Hospitals of China’s Northern Heating Region

by Yue Wu, Qi Meng, Lei Li and Jingyi Mu

Appl. Sci. 2019, 9(24), 5551; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app9245551 - 17 Dec 2019

Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3119

Abstract

Previous studies have found that hospitals are often inadequately ventilated in the heating region of China, which causes an increased risk of negative impacts on patients. The complex interaction between thermal comfort and acoustics presents considerable challenges for designers. There is a wide range of literature covering the area of the interaction between the sound–thermal, sound–odor, and acoustic–visual influences, but a focused research on the sound –thermal influence on comfort in hospitals has not been published yet. This paper describes a series of field measurements and subjective evaluations that investigate the thermal comfort and acoustic performance of eighteen hospitals in China. The results showed that the thermal comfort in the monitored wards was mostly acceptable, but the temperatures tended to be much higher and the humidity much lower, in practice than they were designed to be in the heating season. The most significant conclusion is that a positive thermal stimulus can create a comfortable thermal environment, which can improve patients’ evaluation of the acoustics, while a negative stimulus has the opposite effect. A comfortable acoustic environment also caused patients to positively evaluate thermal comfort. Moreover, the relationship between thermal and sound effects in the overall evaluation showed that they are almost equal. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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Review

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17 pages, 756 KiB

Open AccessReview

Sound Environments in Large Public Buildings for Crowd Transit: A Systematic Review

by Tingting Yang, Francesco Aletta and Jian Kang

Appl. Sci. 2021, 11(9), 3728; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app11093728 - 21 Apr 2021

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2371

Abstract

Sound environments in large public buildings are likely to be different from those of performance spaces, as well as those not specifically designed for acoustic “performance”, but where sounds still play an important role because of the function they can promote (or disrupt). The aim of this study was identifying common strategies and empirical approaches researchers have been implementing for these acoustically complex enclosures and to provide some methodological indications for future studies on the topic. Studies conducted in three building types for crowd transit, such as museums/exhibition spaces, shopping malls, and transportation hubs/stations, which were collecting data about either physical outcomes or individual responses for such sound environments, were selected. The Scopus databases were searched for peer-reviewed journal papers published in English without time limitations. An additional manual search was performed on the reference lists of the retrieved items. The general consideration on inclusion was to meet the requirement that the case belonged to the three building types, and then the specific inclusion criteria were: (1) including at least an objective acoustic measure of the space; or (2) including at least a subjective measure of the space. The search returned 1060 results; after removing duplicates, two authors screened titles and abstracts and selected 117 papers for further analysis. Twenty-six studies were eventually included. Due to the limited number of items and differences in measures across studies, a quantitative meta-analysis could not be performed, and a qualitative approach was adopted instead. The most commonly used objective measures were SPL, and more specifically often considered as L_Aeq, and T. The intervals across studies were currently of inconsistency, and the selection is recommended to take space scale factor into account. The used subjective measures can be classified into four categories as annoyance, affective quality, room-acoustic quality, and acoustic spatiality. Four basic perceptual assessments concerning dynamic contents are accordingly suggested as “annoying-not annoying”, “crowded-uncrowded”, “long-short (reverberation)”, and “far away-nearby”. The other descriptors can be project-specific. The methodologies involve measurement, questionnaire/interview, listening test, and software simulation. It is necessary for the former two to consider temporal and spatial features of such spaces, and the adoption of the latter two will lead to better understanding of users’ exposure in such spaces, e.g., acoustic sequences and user amount. The outputs of investigations inform that background noise level, e.g., 90 dB in museum/exhibition spaces, and sound reverberation, e.g., 4.0 to 5.0 s in shopping malls and transportation hubs/station, are of fundamental importance to the design of such spaces. Sufficient acoustic comfort can be achieved with integrated design of indoor soundscape. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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Other

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15 pages, 3587 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

Understanding the Legendary Sound Environment in the Lobby of Hotel Okura Tokyo

by Ryoko Nojima, Natsuko Sugie, Akira Taguchi and Jun Kokubo

Appl. Sci. 2020, 10(13), 4552; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/app10134552 - 30 Jun 2020

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2293

Abstract

The main lobby of Hotel Okura Tokyo has a good reputation for its sound environment, which affects the conversations of its users. We assumed that the lobby’s reputation was related to its speech intelligibility. In this study, first, the sound during hotel operations was measured to see if there was a difference in the sound environment between the lobby and the entrance hall. As a result, we clarified that the difference in noise levels affected by the degree of crowdedness of the room was smaller in the lobby than in the other rooms. Subsequently, the indoor noise and speech intelligibility were measured to clarify the correspondence of intelligibility with the lobby’s reputation. As a result, the indoor noise was found to be at a level suitable for hotel lobbies and the intelligibility was good. A comprehensive evaluation that included the results of other acoustical surveys revealed that the lobby of Okura is a space that is suitable for conversations, corresponding to the opinions of users. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Room Acoustics of Non-performing Public Spaces)

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