ACOUSTICS

Contents :
 Acoustics and its importance
 Reverberation time
 Absorption coefficient
 Method to measure absorption coefficient
 Sabine’s and Eyring’s formula
 Applications of acoustics- Designing of hall for speech,
concert, and opera
Acoustics:
Deals with the production, propagation, transmission,
detection of sound waves.

Classification of sound:

(i) Infrasonic 20 Hz (Inaudible)

(ii) Audible 20 to 20,000Hz (Music

and Noise)

(iii) Ultrasonic 20,000Hz (Inaudible)

Acoustics Properties :
Sound is a mechanical wave and therefore requires a
medium to travel. So, It is reflected, transmitted, or
absorbed by the materials it encounters.

Architectural Acoustics:
Deals with the planning of a building or a hall so that there
is most advantageous flow of properly diffused sound to
entire audience without affecting the speech intelligibility
and tonal qualities of music.
Reverberation:
When sound waves are produced inside a building, they spread out,
scatter and get partly reflected (and partly absorbed) from various
surfaces such as walls, ceiling and floor of the hall. Audience will
receive a direct sound from the source followed by series of sounds
reflected and traveling towards him. These successive sounds will be of
diminishing intensity. Therefore listener will continue to receive the
sound even after the source of sound has stopped emitting. This is
called as reverberation.
Definition:
The persistence or prolongation of sound in a hall even though
the sound source is stopped called Reverberation.

The time during which sound persists in the hall is called

reverberation time. It is measured from time that the original
sound is produced, or in case of continuous note from time that
source stopped sounding to time at which sound becomes
inaudible.
Reverberation Time:
The time taken by the sound wave to fall below the minimum
audibility level after the source is stopped.
Or
Time taken by sound wave to fall to one millionth of its initial
intensity, after the source is stopped.
I = (1/106)I0 (I and I0 is the final and initial sound
intensity level respectively )
• If Reverberation Time is too low: Sound disappear quickly
and hence less loud.
• If Reverberation Time is too high: Sound exist for a long
period of time - an overlapping of successive sounds
results in unclear information.
Therefore, for the good audibility: Reverberation time
should be optimum.
Reverberation Time:
Dry speech :

0.8 s Reverberation time :

2 s Reverberation time :

5 s Reverberation time :
Optimum reverberation time:

9
Echo vs. Reverberation:
A reverberation is perceived when the reflected sound wave reaches your
ear in less than 0.1 second after the original sound wave. Since the original
sound wave is still held in memory, there is no time delay between the
perception of the reflected sound wave and the original sound wave. The two
sound waves tend to combine as one very prolonged sound wave.
If the reflecting wall is more than approximately 17 meters away from
speaker, then the sound wave will take more than 0.1 seconds to reflect and
return. There will be a small time delay between the perception of the
original sound and the perception of the reflected sound. This reflected wave
is called echo.
Growth and decay of sound density in room :
Sound density

Time
Acoustical demands of an auditorium:
 Sound should be sufficient loud and intelligible at every
point in room.
 Sound of each syllable should soon decay so that the
succeeding syllable is heard distinctly (no excessive
reverberations.)
 No more echoes than necessary for maintaining
continuity.
 No undesirable focusing or zones of silence or regions of
poor audibility due to walls, ceiling etc.
 No unpleasant reinforcement so that tonal quality is
unaffected.
 Extraneous noise and echelon effects (regular successive
echoes) within building should be avoided.
Absorption coefficient (α) :
 It is defined with respect to a standard of absorption
which is open window unit (OWU).
 Sabine chose one sq ft of an open window as standard of
absorption (OWU) as all sound falling on it will pass
through it and can be said to be absorbed. This is also
called as sabin.
 One person is equal to 4.7 sq ft of open window.
 Absorption coefficient (α) is defined as the ratio of the
sound energy absorption by that surface to that of an
equal area of perfect absorber such as open window.
Absorption coefficient (α) :
In case of n number of surfaces with geometrical area S1,
S2, S3…………Sn and absorption coefficient α1, α2, α3…….αn
respectively, average absorption coefficient ( 𝛼ത ) is defined
as
𝛼1 𝑆1 + 𝛼2 𝑆2 + 𝛼3 𝑆3 + ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ 𝛼𝑛 𝑆𝑛
𝛼ത =
𝑆1 + 𝑆2 + 𝑆3 + ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ ⋯ 𝑆𝑛

𝛼ഥ ෍ 𝑆𝑖 = ෍ 𝛼𝑖 𝑆𝑖
𝑖 𝑖

𝛼𝑆 is also called as effective surface area of a

material/object or the absorbing power of material. It
has unit Open Window Unit (OWU) because this
represents surface area of window (𝑆𝑤 ) which will have
same absorbing power as object (𝛼𝑆).
Absorption of sound :
The property of a surface by which sound energy is
converted into other form of energy (heat) is known as
absorption.
Absorption of sound is mainly due to two causes:
1. Porosity: In the process of absorption sound energy is
converted into heat due to frictional resistance inside the
pores of the material.
The fibrous and porous materials absorb more sound
energy as compared to other solid materials.
2. Flexural vibration: When sound waves fall on flexible
materials not rigidly mounted, the material of course is
set into vibration and the damping forces called into paly
dissipate the incident sound energy into heat.
15
Sabine’s Formula for Reverberation Time:
Prof. W. C. Sabine (1868-1919) determined the reverberation
times of empty halls and furnished halls of different sizes and
arrived at the following conclusions.

• The reverberation time depends on the reflecting

properties of the walls, floor and ceiling of the hall.
• The reverberation time depends on the absorbing power of
the various surfaces (carpets, cushions, curtains etc).
• The reverberation time is independent of the positions of
the source and the listener and the shape of the room.
• The reverberation time is directly proportional to volume
of the hall.
• The reverberation time is inversely proportional to
effective absorbing surface area.
Sabine’s Formula for Reverberation Time:
Prof. Sabine summarized his results that Reverberation time
(T) is
Volume of the hall
𝑇 ∝
Effective absorbing surface area
𝑉
𝑇=𝐾
𝐴𝑒𝑓𝑓

where K is a proportionality constant.

K= 0.05 (if V is in ft3 and Aeff in ft2)
K = 0.162 (if V is in m3 and Aeff in m2)
This Equation is known as Sabine’s formula for
reverberation time.
17
Sabine’s Formula for Reverberation Time:
𝑉 𝑉
𝑇=𝐾 =𝐾
𝐴𝑒𝑓𝑓 𝛼𝑆
Where α is the absorption coefficient and S is geometrical
surface area.
If there are n number of surfaces then

V
T K
1S1   2 S 2   3 S3  .......   n S n

where Sn are different surfaces of absorption coefficients 𝛼𝑛 .

As V, S and a can be calculated from plans and specifications, so it

is possible for an architect to design an auditorium with any 18
desired time of reverberation.
 Limitation of Sabine’s Formula
1. It is good for only small values of absorption coefficient (α
≤ 0.2)
2. It is not valid for higher values of α. This is because for α
= 1, T should be zero, whereas Sabine’s formula finds T =
KV/Aeff, a non zero value.
3. For higher values of absorption coefficient, the Sabine’s
formula gives higher value of reverberation time than its
actual value.

Therefore, Eyring’s Formula came in existence

Derivation of Reverberation time (Eyring formula):
Statistically the distance travelled between two successive
4𝑉
reflections is = (V is volume and S is surface area)
𝑆
If 𝑣 is velocity of sound, then time between two successive
4𝑉
reflections =
𝑆𝑣
𝑆𝑣𝑡
Average number of reflections in time t =
4𝑉
If 𝛼ത is average reflection coefficient, then after first reflection
(1 − 𝛼) ത will be reflected, after 2 reflections 1 − 𝛼ത 2 is
reflected and so on…..
If 𝐼0 is the initial intensity and 𝐼𝑡 is intensity after time t then
𝑆𝑣𝑡
𝐼𝑡 = 𝐼0 (1 − 𝛼)
ത 4𝑉
𝐼𝑡 𝑆𝑣𝑡
= (1 − 𝛼)
ത 4𝑉 (1)
𝐼0
According to definition of reverberation time (T), when t =T
𝐼𝑡
= 10−6 (2)
𝐼0
Putting eq (1) = (2)
𝑆𝑣𝑇
10−6 = (1 − 𝛼)
ത 4𝑉
𝑆𝑣𝑇
⇒ ln 10−6
= ln(1 − 𝛼)
ത
4𝑉
−6
4𝑉
⟹ 𝑇 = ln(10 )
𝑆𝑣 ln(1 − 𝛼)
ത
Putting 𝑣 = 1120 𝑓𝑡/𝑠𝑒𝑐
2.3026 × (−6) × 4𝑉 0.05 𝑉
𝑇= =−
𝑆 × 1120 × ln(1 − 𝛼)
ത 𝑆 ln(1 − 𝛼)
ത

Above expression is Eyring’s Formula (V in ft3, S in ft2)

 0.05 𝑉
𝑇=− V in ft3 and S in ft2
𝑆 ln(1 − 𝛼)
ത
0.162 𝑉
𝑇=− V in m3 and S in m2
𝑆 ln(1 − 𝛼)
ത

ln 1 − 𝛼ത can be expanded as (using Maclaurin series):

ഥ2
𝛼 ഥ3
𝛼
ln 1 − 𝛼ത = −𝛼ത − − − ⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯
2 3

0.05𝑉 0.05𝑉 0.05𝑉

𝑇=− 2 3 ≈ =
𝛼ത 𝛼ത 𝑆𝛼ത σ𝑖 𝛼𝑖 𝑆𝑖
𝑆 −𝛼ത − − − ⋯⋯⋯⋯⋯
2 3
 Sabine’s vs Eyring’s Formula
0.05V 0.05V
T ( Sabine)  T(Eyring)  -
S S ln(1 -  )

1. Both formulae give similar values when α is small.

2. However, for large value of α (for ex. α = 1) two give
different values
0.05V
T ( Sabine)  T(Eyring)  0
S

3. When α = 0, then both Sabine and Eyring’s formula give

correct result
T (Sabine)   T(Eyring)  
 Methods to measure Absorption
Coefficient
Two important methods :
1. Reverberation chamber method
2. Stationary wave method (Measures only for normal
incidence. Material can be used in small samples and
impossible to mount sample in similar conditions to
those when material is mounted in bulk.)
 Reverberation Chamber method :

1. First the reverberation time of the room with object is

measured. Then object is removed and the extent of open window
is adjusted until the reverberation time is same as before.

Absorption of sound by the object is equal to absorption of sound

by window.
Area of the window
Absorption coefficient of the object (α) =
Total area of the object

α will always be a fraction.

Reverberation Chamber method :
2. In second method, reverberation time of room is measured
with the object of interest and without it.
0.05V
Reverberation time without object (T1) = where   i Si
  i Si i

is absorption in hall without object. i

0.05V
Reverberation time with object (T2) =
 i i
 S
i
 cS where c

is absorption coefficient of object and S is surface area in ft2.

1 1 cS
 
T2 T1 0.05V
0.05V  1 1
c   
S  T2 T1 
Reverberation Chamber method :
3. Third method can be used for calculation of average
absorption coefficient (𝛼ത) of a room.
𝐼𝑡 = 𝐼0 1 − 𝛼ത 𝑆𝑣𝑡/4𝑉

Taking log on both side

𝐼𝑡 𝑆𝑣𝑡
𝑙𝑛 = 𝑙𝑛 1 − 𝛼LJ
𝐼0 4𝑉
𝐼𝑡 𝑆𝑣𝑡 𝛼LJ2
⇒ = −𝛼LJ − . . . .
𝐼0 4𝑉 2
𝐼𝑡 −𝑆𝑣𝑡𝛼LJ
⇒ 𝑙𝑛 ≈
𝐼0 4𝑉
𝐼𝑡 −𝑆𝑣𝑡𝛼LJ
⇒ = 𝑒 4𝑉
𝐼0
−𝑆𝑣𝑡𝛼LJ
⇒ 𝐼𝑡 = 𝐼0 𝑒 4𝑉
Suppose there are 2 sources with power P0 and P1 giving
maximum intensities I0 and I1 respectively. Let Im be
maximum audible intensity and T0 and T1 respective times of
decay to threshold of audibility
−𝑆𝑣T0 𝛼LJ
For first source : 𝐼m = 𝐼0 𝑒 4𝑉 (3)

−𝑆𝑣T1 𝛼LJ
For second source : 𝐼m = 𝐼1 𝑒 4𝑉 (4)

−ഥ
𝛼𝑆𝑣𝑇0 −ഥ
𝛼𝑆𝑣𝑇1
Putting (3) = (4) 𝐼0 𝑒 4𝑉 = 𝐼1 𝑒 4𝑉

ഥ 𝑆𝑣
𝛼
𝐼0 (𝑇 −𝑇1 )
⇒ =𝑒 4𝑉 0
𝐼1
 ഥ 𝑆𝑣
𝛼
𝐼0 (𝑇0 −𝑇1 )
=𝑒 4𝑉
𝐼1
Taking log on both sides
𝐼0 𝛼𝑆𝑣
ത
ln = (𝑇0 − 𝑇1 )
𝐼1 4𝑉
4𝑉 ln(𝐼0 /𝐼1 )
𝛼ത =
𝑆𝑣(𝑇0 − 𝑇1 )
4𝑉 ln(𝑃0 /𝑃1) 𝐼0 𝑃0
= 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 =
𝑆𝑣(𝑇0 − 𝑇1 ) 𝐼1 𝑃1
4𝑉[ln 𝑃0 − ln 𝑃1]
=
𝑆𝑣(𝑇0 − 𝑇1 )
Hence value of 𝛼ത can be calculated if P0, P1, T0, T1, S, v and V
are known.
Conditions for good acoustical design of rooms :
1. Control of reverberation :

a) Few open windows.

b) Walls covered with absorbent materials.
c) Upholstered seats.
d) Good audience.

2. Shape of walls and ceiling

(a) No curved walls or corners to avoid focusing and dead

spaces.
(b) splayed ceilings
Conditions for good acoustical design of rooms :

3. Avoid concave surfaces such as domes, curved arches etc.

to eliminate focusing effects, non distribution of sound
and echoes.

4. Floor plan with diverging walls : helps in higher sound

level at the rear of the hall.

5. Seats : Gradually elevated to promote free flow of direct

sound from source to listener.
An anechoic chamber is a space in which
there are no echoes or reverberations.
The surfaces absorb all sound, and reflect none.
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