Building Quieter Communities

FuturSonic Corporation
By: Huzefa Fatakdawala

5/25/2011

Building Quieter Communities - Solutions to Noise Pollution

(Proposal by FutureSonic Corporation) FutureSonic Corporation is a company that aims at winning the contract to built the community of Danville so that, the citizens of that community may benefit from futuristic technology and lead a safe life in a noise free environment that will be beneficial to them. The best of all is that all of this comes at an affordable price of just 22 Marques to the community!

WHAT IS NOISE POLLUTION?

Any unwanted sound that is disturbing to human ears, is known as noise pollution. Common sources of noise pollution include factories, cars, and air conditioners. In home environments, barking dogs or loud music may be a source of noise pollution. Some communities like mine have penalties for people who own dogs that bark for most of the day causing noise pollution. Noise intensity is measured in decibels, where a higher value is louder and hence more disturbing. At 45 decibels, sound is loud enough to prevent somebody from sleeping, at 85 decibels, it starts damaging the ear and at 120 decibels, causes pain in the ear.

PROBLEMS NOISE POLLUTION BRINGS TO THE ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIETY

1. EFFECT ON HUMANS Noise pollution damages our health in many ways. These include hearing loss, deafness, lack of sleep, irritability, indigestion, heartburn, high blood pressures and heart diseases. The most common of these is hearing loss. Hearing loss can range anywhere between minor hearing problems to profound complete deafness. Exposure to amplified music, or loud noise in occupations such as construction and/or heavy equipment usage. Other sources of include attendance at music concerts and nightclubs where sound is amplified to damaging levels. Exposure to high intensity noise can also lead to mental problems such as the inability to concentrate. It is not just limited to physical damages.

2. EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT Noise pollution can have adverse effects on environment too. Noise causes stress to animals, makes predator/prey detection and avoidance harder, and interferes with their use of sound for communication, reproduction and navigation. High noise levels may also interfere with the natural cycles of animals, including feeding behaviour, breeding rituals, and migration paths. Because of noise pollution, many animals leave their habitats and which is a significant problem. This can lead to extinction of endangered species of animals. The following example will show exactly how damaging loud noise can be. It is determined that certain beached whales are brought to shore because of exposure to extremely high sound intensities (about 200 dB) due to the sound of military SONAR.

HOW CAN THE PROBLEMS BE ADDRESSED?

1. CONSTRUCTION SITES, MUSIC LISTENERS AT HIGH INTENSITIES (OUTSIDE RESIDENTIAL AREAS / WORK ENVIRONMENTS) To prevent hearing loss, FutureSonic Corporation has come up with a solution. This is the introduction of noise-cancelling headphones. The exact circuitry cannot be shown due to proprietary issues but the concept can be explained. The noise cancelling system uses active noise control (ANC). This involves microphones placed near the ear which detect the frequency of sounds and generates an anti-noise from a speaker which is the opposite of the sound. This causes destructive interference that cancels out the sound produced (Red and Blue waves are opposite and hence cancel each other out). 2. IMPROVEMENTS IN BUILDING DESIGN TO KEEP SOUND OUT (INSIDE RESIDENTIAL AREAS) Unwanted noise causes a lot of stress, loss of concentration and affects general well being. It can have severe negative social and economic impacts. Lack of sound proofing makes life miserable for people living in close proximity to sources of noise pollution discussed above. For a structure to be sound proof from noise pollution the following elements must be present,

a. Reduce noise reverberation inside a room b. Block transmission between rooms c. Prevent noise from outside penetrating the building Most of this is done by adding layers of insulation at strategic locations in the structure. These locations include walls, roofs and external noise barriers that are very much like a fence. The material used for insulating the walls is stone wool. It has an open fibrous structure that allows it to absorb and regulate noise. This has the ability to reduce noise from both machines and activities of people. Not only does this material keep the sound out, it also keeps the sound in. So, in theory there is no exchange of sound energy. Another enemy in building structures are the windows. These allow sound to pass most readily. In the new building structures that we plan to make a new type of window. The concept behind these types of windows is that we trap air between two panes of glass or plastic. This is called the dead air. The dead air increases noise reduction dramatically. As sound travels the energy is dissipated and the intensity decreases as a result. The first layer prevents some sound from entering. The air space absorbs the remaining sound. Some sound is still blocked by the second window and very little sound reaches the room. This type of window can block up to 80% more sound than conventional ones. To improve the efficiency, the panels can be made thicker because an increase in mass of the vibrating object will make it less likely to regenerate sound because the energy is already used up. Another option is to decrease vibratory response. A pillow for example muffles sounds, because it does not readily vibrate hence muffling the sound instead of regenerating it.

CONCLUSION
Noise pollution is an important aspect to consider when doing urban planning especially in a place like Danville. All of this is possible due to the application of physics. We would like your engineers to have a look at the points highlighted by our engineers, Phineas and Ferb.

a. Really high sound intensities are damaging and are calculated in decibels. The harmful effects have been stated. b. Sound proofing of windows done by the two panels of glass and layer of air. This shows that sound is a form of energy that requires a medium to travel. Also, the speed of sound varies in materials. c. The frequency-wavelength relationship is shown because the sound sources decrease in frequency and increase in wavelength over distance. Less audible as you move further away. d. For the noise cancelling headphones to function, the basic principle of destructive interference is used to cancel sounds out. That is all for now! Thank you for considering this proposal.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.geogise.com/environmental-issues/noise-pollution.php http://bodyandhealth.canada.com/channel_condition_info_details.asp? disease_id=152&channel_id=165&relation_id=10833 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise-cancelling_headphones http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070522175555AAaIctf http://library.thinkquest.org/C005137F/Effects%20of%20noise%20pollution.htm http://manurect3.blogspot.com/ http://www.rockwool.com/energy+efficiency/benefits+of+low+energy+buildings/less+noise+po llution http://www.soundproofing.org/sales/magnetseal_windows.htm http://blog.civilengineergroup.com/sound-proof-construction-techniques.html