Professional Documents
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
a
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Egypt
b
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Egypt
Received 19 April 2016; received in revised form 30 September 2016; accepted 7 November 2016
KEYWORDS Abstract
Acoustic performance; Based on the commonly used indicators for speech intelligibility, this work acoustically
Speech intelligibility; evaluates the two largest auditoria in the Faculty of Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo,
Reverberation time; Egypt, using experimental and digital simulation techniques. Design treatments were also
Background noise level; suggested to improve the acoustic performance of the auditoria, where the impact of these
Lecture auditoria
treatments was checked using the simulation as well. The models that were analysed using the
CATT software were rst validated utilizing the results of the eld work in the unoccupied
rooms. The results showed that the acoustic quality of the two auditoria are far from the
optimal conditions due to their improper acoustic characteristics and the high noise levels as
well. The results of improvement proposals showed that altering the ceiling shape and adding
efcient absorptive materials to the rear surfaces successfully reduced the excessive
reverberation time to the optimal values, increased the early reections and eliminated the
shadow zones. In addition, decreasing the noise levels by 20 dB due to improving the window
insulation noticeably improved the speech intelligibility at all receivers.
& 2017 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under
the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2016.11.002
2095-2635/& 2017 The Authors. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
2 S. Eldakdoky, A. Elkhateeb
them are small rooms (less than 265 m2), while the rest Room RAZ, the largest auditorium in the faculty, is the
are large rooms (more than 265 m2). main lecture room for the preparatory level, Building 4 in
Thus, the scope of this work includes two of the large Figure 1. It is a trapezoidal room, as shown in Figure 3. The
rooms in the faculty, namely, room C and the Abdolraseq slope of the audience area is approximately 9, which
room (RAZ). Room C, the second largest room in the faculty, provides a good sight line and grants a direct sound path
is one of four typical lecture rooms in the department of for every student. Similar to most auditoria in the faculty,
civil engineering, building 3 in Figure 1; hence it represents the two rooms utilize natural ventilation via open windows.
25% of the large auditoria in the faculty. It is a square room These windows directly overlook a crowded, noisy street,
in which the benches have been arranged diagonally, see parking areas and buildings 2 and 7 (see Figure 1). The main
Figure 2. The slope of the audience area is approximately architectural features of both auditoria are summarised in
7, which agrees with the minimum slope required for sight Tables 1 and 2. Speech intelligibility (SI) in lecture rooms is
lines (Elkhateeb, 2003). a major concern in educational spaces not only to support
the learning process (Reich and Bradley, 1998) but also for
lecturers comfort. Recent studies indicate that improper
1 Departments of
Architecture, Math acoustic conditions in lecture rooms cause severe vocal
and Physics problems for approximately one-tenth of teachers (Brunskog
2 Department of
automotive and et al., 2009). Speech intelligibility is a single measure for
locomotive, Library, both room acoustics and the speech-to-noise ratio (S/N)
Theatre and
administration.
(Reich and Bradley, 1998); it can be governed by different
3 Civil department indicators, such as the useful to detrimental sound ratio
auditoria (U80), speech transmission index (STI) or its common
4 Main auditorium
5 Civil Departments variant, the rapid speech transmission index (RASTI) (Reich
and Automotive& and Bradley, 1998; Shams and Rama krishnan, 2012). SI is
Locomotive
Workshops considered to be a function of reverberation time (T); early
6 Mechanical Power reection energy can increase the S/N by up to 9 dB
Department and
Laboratories.
(Bradley and Sato, 2003), while an S/N of + 15 dB can raise
7 New Building Under SI scores by up to 100% (Bradley, 2002). Thus, the optimal
construction reverberation time (Topt) is an important criterion support-
8 Mosque
ing SI (Shams and Rama krishnan, 2012). Background noise
Figure 1 Layout of the Faculty of Engineering. level (L) is another important acoustic indicator (Bradley
Dimensions
Statistical Data
No. of Audience VP m3c Net Audience Area m2 APdm2 Topt@500 Hz Environmental Conditions
Net Gross RH % Temp. 1C
306 4.5 122.6 0.40 0.88 0.64 43% 26
a
perimeter.
b
maximum distance between the sound source and farthest receiver.
c
volume per person.
d
Area per person.
and Sato, 2008); because excessive noise distracts student DiMarino et al. DiMarino et al. (2011) analysed the acoustic
attention and reduces the S/N, the acceptable steady level performance of the proposed design for a preconstruction
of noise in learning spaces should not exceed 35 dB lecture hall in the University of Windsor's Centre for
(Standard, ANSI/ASA S12.602010/Part1American National, Engineering Innovation (CEI) using ODEON software. Four
2010). acoustic parameters were considered in this study: T,
clarity (C50), early decay time and STI. The results
indicated that both T and early decay time were less than
1.1. Related work the optimum values due to the excessive absorptive areas.
Thus, upgraded materials were suggested and explored
Many researchers have investigated the acoustics of learn- using ODEON software to enhance the acoustic quality of
ing spaces, either based on eld measurements or digital the room. Hodgson (Hodgson, 2004) investigated the
simulation, in the design phase or after construction. acoustic performance of fourteen auditoria in the
4 S. Eldakdoky, A. Elkhateeb
Dimensions
Statistical Data
University of British Columbia before and after renovation; 1. Field survey to specify the architectural
the values used in the evaluation of the room were features of the selected rooms.
unoccupied case, except for the audience (students), for 3.1. Room C
which coefcients were taken according to Kuttruff
(Kuttruff, 2009); see Table 4. The block representing the Analysis of the room shape using geometrical acoustics, as
students was given the absorption coefcients of people shown in Figure 8, showed an uneven distribution of early
sitting on wooden chairs. and late reections due to the form of the walls and ceiling.
For comparison, optimal reverberation times (Topt) for both This irregularity results in the formation of many shadow
auditoria at 500 Hz and above were calculated according to zones. No utter echoes were detected. Based on Table 3,
the formula (2005a, , 2005b; William and Joseph, 1999): the room can be divided, generally, into two main zones:
medium and hard acoustic zones. The rst zone, medium,
V
T opt 0:3 log s 1 encompasses the front audience area, which receives early
10 reections from the ceiling and uneven early and late
where V is the room volume in m3. The optimal reverberation reections from the walls. In the second zone, hard, wide
time at frequency bands less than 500 Hz (ToptOBCF) was strips of shadows appear due to the form of the ceiling in
calculated by applying the formula (Elkhateeb, 2005a): addition to late reections from the rear walls. The shape of
the ceiling resulted in approximately 31% of the audience
T optOBCF nTopt s 2 area not receiving any desirable early reections from the
ceiling.
where n is a ratio that can be calculated from (Elkhateeb,
As expected, due to the noisy environment surrounding
2005a):
the faculty, the comparison between the measured spec-
5:6716 trum of Lave and the maximum acceptable noise level for
n 3 learning rooms (Standard, ANSI/ASA S12.602010/
F 0:2856
Part1American National, 2010), as shown in Figure 9(a),
where F is the centre frequency of the band. The logarithmic illustrates that Lave (Nc-55) is higher than the acceptable
average of the background noise levels (Lave) for the mea- value (Nc-35) at all frequencies. The highest noise levels,
sured L was calculated from (South, 2004): above 50 dB, occur at important frequencies for speech
intelligibility ( Z 1 kHz). The comparison between the occu-
1
Lave 10log L1 L2 dB 4 pied reverberation times calculated by CATT (TOcatt) and
x10 10 10Lx=10
10 10
Topt, as shown in Figure 9(b), indicates that there is a wide
gap between the two values at all frequencies. At 1 and
where x is the number of measurements.
2 kHz, TOcatt is more than twice Topt and is almost doubled
The results of the simulation were compared to the
at 500 Hz. The values of STI show that all of the receivers
optimal values, whereas Lave was compared to the ANSI
lay in the poor zone, as shown in Figure 10(a), as expected
maximum acceptable level of noise (NC-35) for educational
due to the long reverberation time and high noise level,
spaces (Standard, ANSI/ASA S12.602010/Part1American
which reduce the S/N. The result agrees well with the
National, 2010). Based on the results, the acoustic defects
analysis of the room shape; the front receivers, Nos. 1 and
were specied. Accordingly, proposals to enhance and
4, receive the strongest direct sound, 1storder early reec-
improve the acoustic quality of the two rooms were
tions from the ceiling and 1st and 2ndorder late reections
suggested. The effects of these proposals were explored
from the rear walls. The others receive relatively abundant
using CATT software.
1st and 2ndorder late reections from the rear walls in
addition to 1storder early reections, either from the side
walls (receivers Nos. 2, 3 and 5) or from the ceiling
3. Description of the acoustic performance in (receiver 6). The long reverberation time and the excessive
the examined rooms reections result in a very low level of clarity, as shown in
Figure 10(b), where the average values of C50 are less than
The acoustic performance of the rooms under consideration 0 dB at all frequencies except 500 Hz, which has a value of
as well as the architectural elements that negatively affect 0.3 dB, because of the total power absorption at this
their acoustic quality are detailed below. frequency.
Acoustic improvement on two lecture auditoria 7
Table 4 The absorption Coefcients () for rooms surfaces and audience area (Kuttruff, 2009; William and Joseph, 1999).
Ceilings
Vinyl paint and cement plaster on expanded wire mesh ceiling 0.15 0.25 0.18 0.04 0.04 0.03
13 mm gypsum tiles over large air space 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.05 0.05
Floors
Terrazzo tiles 0.02 0.02 0.02 0.04 0.05 0.05
Granite oor 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05 0.05
Wooden oor on joists 0.15 0.11 0.10 0.07 0.06 0.07
audience area
Unoccupied wooden chairs 0.15 0.19 0.22 0.39 0.38 0.3
Audience on wooden chairs, 2/m2 0.24 0.4 0.78 0.98 0.96 0.87
Number of rays (recommended by 21514 for room C Background Logarithmic average of real measurements in each
Catt) 26772 for room noise room.
RAZ level
8 S. Eldakdoky, A. Elkhateeb
TM TUcatt TM TUcatt
2.5 2.5
2 2
1.5 1.5
1 1
0.5 0.5
0 0
125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Frequences/HZ Frequences/HZ
Room C Room RAZ
Figure 7 Comparison between TM and TUcatt for the unoccupied rooms.
90
80
70
Sound Pressure Level/dB
70
60 65 TOcatt Topt
60 2
50 55
Sound Pressure Level/dB
50
40 1.5
45
40
30
35 1
30
20
25
20 0.5
10
15
0 10 0
125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Frequency/Hz Frequences/HZ
Lave indicated on NC Comparison between TOcatt and Topt
C50 ave.
0.8 3
0.7
STI
0.4 0
Poor
0.3 -1
0.2
0.1 -2
0 -3
R01 R02 R03 R04 R05 R06 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Audience Frequences/HZ
STI C50
90
80
70
Sound Pressure Level/dB
70
60 65
60 TOcatt Topt
50 2
55
Sound Pressure Level/dB
50
40 45 1.5
40
30
35
1
30
20
25
20 0.5
10
15
0 10 0
125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Frequency/Hz Frequences/HZ
Lave indicated on NC Comparison between TOcatt and Topt
3.2. Room RAZ audience area and receives strong direct sound and early
sound reections from the ceiling and walls. In the second
The shape of room RAZ divides it into three main zones, as zone, medium, almost 19% of the audience receives early
shown in Figure 11: good, medium and hard acoustic zones. reections from the ceiling and late reections from distant
The rst zone, good, occupies approximately 25% of the walls. In the hard zone, 56% of the audience receives late
10 S. Eldakdoky, A. Elkhateeb
STI
0.4 Poor 0
0.3
-1
0.2
0.1 -2
0 -3
R01 R02 R03 R04 R05 R06 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Audience Frequences/HZ
STI C50
Absorption- Sabine
450
300 400
350
250
300
200 250
200
150
150
100 100
125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Frequences/HZ Frequences/HZ
room C room RAZ
Figure 14 Comparison between total room absorption for Topt and TOcatt.
reections from the rear walls and an uneven distribution of as expected due to the long T and abundant late reections
early reections and many shadows from the ceiling. Again, at the distant receivers.
the inappropriate shape of the ceiling resulted in approxi-
mately 22% of the audience area not receiving the desirable
1storder early reections from the ceiling. 3.3. Results and discussion
Similar to room C, the spectrum of Lave (Nc-55) is higher
than the maximum acceptable level (Nc-35) at all frequencies, The acoustic analysis of the two rooms showed that neither
as shown in Figure 12(a). The highest noise levels are at fulls the recommended criteria for learning spaces. Hence,
important frequencies for speech intelligibility. A comparison the two auditoria are noisy and suffer from poor speech
between TOcatt and Topt, as shown in Figure 12(b), showed that intelligibility. Although L is not more important than the
TOcatt exceeds Topt at all frequencies; TOcatt is higher than Topt acoustic design of a lecture room to achieve a satisfactory
by factors of 1.6 and 1.7 at 1 and 2 kHz, respectively, and by a S/N ratio (Bradley and Sato, 2003), the high noise levels in
factor of 1.4 at 125 Hz. STI values showed that other than the auditoria, 20 dB above the maximum acceptable levels,
receivers Nos. 1 and 4, the receivers nearest to the sound severely reduce the speech intelligibility. This noise mainly
source, all of the receivers lay in the poor zone, as shown in comes from the natural ventilation via the open windows
Figure 13(a). This is expected as T and L signicantly exceed that overlook a crowded, noisy street and yards for student
the acceptable limits. The result is also compatible with the assembly. The excessive TOcatt results from the absence of
room shape analysis, in which receivers Nos. 1 and 4 receive appropriate absorbing materials, although the volume per
the strongest direct eld, 1storder early reections from the person (VP) in both rooms is compatible with DIN-18041
ceiling and walls in addition to weak late reections from rear (3:6 m3/seat) (Cox and DAntonio, 2009), Tables 1 and 2.
surfaces. Receivers Nos. 2 and 5 receive 1storder early The volume per person in room C is higher than VP in room
reections, 1stand 2ndorder late reections from the rear RAZ by a factor of 1.2, which explains why room C is
walls and no early reections from the ceiling. Receivers Nos. acoustically worse. Moreover, the distribution and form
3 and 6 receive abundant late reections from the surrounding of the reective surfaces, especially the ceilings, are
walls in addition to 1storder early reections from the ceiling. inefcient, as 31% and 25% of the audience area in Room
The values of the C50 spectrum, as shown in Figure 13(b), C and RAZ, respectively, do not receive any early reections
varied between 4 dB and 2.3 dB. The negative values of from the ceiling (or walls, in room RAZ). These defects
C50 are at receivers in the hard acoustic zone; this result is resulted in negative values of clarity and poor STI levels.
Acoustic improvement on two lecture auditoria 11
Because early reections and direct elds are incorporated to regularly distribute the early reections throughout
together and perceived as one sound that is louder than the the rooms.
direct sound alone by 10 dB or greater (Reich and Bradley,
1998), the internal surfaces of the auditoria must be
modied to minimize the late reections and excessive 4. Proposals for improvement
reverberation time, maximize the desirable early reection
energy and eliminate the shadow zones. The total power of The results of the analysis show that reducing reverberation
absorption in room C should be almost doubled, Figure 14 by adding more absorptive materials and eliminating the
(a). For room RAZ, the total power of absorption should be shadow zones by modifying the ceiling form will not be
increased over its recent values by a factor of 1.6 at low sufcient to improve intelligibility as long as L is very high.
frequencies and 1.7 at mid and high frequencies, Figure 14 The classical approach to reducing L is to close the open
(b). The existing ceilings in both auditoria must be modied windows, which will improve the room insulation. Such a
12 S. Eldakdoky, A. Elkhateeb
Table 7 The absorption Coefcients () for proposed treatments (Kuttruff, 2009; William and Joseph, 1999).
Ceilings
Reective, painted steel tiles 0.1 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.2
mineral tiles 0.3 0.35 0.4 0.55 0.8 0.7
Floors
wooden parquet 0.04 0.04 0.07 0.06 0.06 0.07
solution imposes the use of an air conditioning system before treatments, as shown in Figure 16. The comparison
instead of natural ventilation, which is currently impracti- illustrates that although the third proposal covers less area
cal. Therefore, different treatments were proposed and by absorptive materials in comparison to the rst proposal,
CATT software was used to corroborate the selection of the it yields the best performance, as it is much closer to Topt at
best proposal for each room as the following. all frequencies, Figure 16(a). This result is justied because
the total absorption for the new materials in the third
proposal is higher than the total absorption for the new
4.1. Room C materials in the other proposals. The new shape of the
ceiling decreases the room volume by approximately 18%;
Three different proposals were suggested from which the nevertheless, this does not reduce VP to less than the
most feasible proposal was selected. recommended limits; it also enhances the acoustic quality
within the room by eliminating the shadows. For the above-
The rst proposal includes changing the form of the mentioned reason, the second proposal is the least effec-
ceiling as well as the nishing materials for all of the tive. Due to the reduced L in the three proposals, a
internal surfaces except the front wall and oor, see noticeable improvement in the intelligibility of speech was
Figure 15(a) and Table 7; the total absorption areas are achieved at all receivers that are now located in the good
338 m2. The new materials include: i) covering all walls zone, as shown in Figure 16(b). Nevertheless, the third
with 100 mm of mineral wool and 3 mm of perforated proposal again achieves the highest STI due to its optimal
plywood (Kuttruff, 2009)and ii) using reective, painted reverberation time. Clarity in the three proposals increased
steel tiles for the front half of the new ceiling and by more than 2 dB at all frequencies, as shown in Figure 16
mineral tiles for the rear part (William and Joseph, (c). Though the third proposal yields the highest clarity,
1999). The proposal also includes adding soundproof approximately 5 dB at mid and high frequencies, due to
windows over the existing single pane windows to raise proportional correlation between C50 and T.
the sound transmission class (STC) from 28 to 54 to
reduce L by 20 dB (Safelex-Acoustical Guide, 2015).
The second proposal is similar to the rst proposal but
without any changes to the existing ceiling, as shown in 4.2. Room RAZ
Figure 15(b). The total absorption areas are 252 m2.
The third proposal includes treating the back walls and The following proposals were suggested to select the most
half of the side walls with 50 mm thick wood-wool slabs feasible proposal.
on a solid backing, as shown in Figure 15(c) and Table 7,
as well as treating the plinths of other walls with 100 mm The rst proposal includes installing 100 mm of mineral
of mineral wool covered by 3 mm of perforated plywood. wool covered with 3 mm of perforated plywood on the
In addition, changes to the form of the ceiling and back and rear two-thirds of the side walls, see Figure 17
treatment of the windows are the same as the rst (a) and Table 7; using marble cladding for the front wall
proposal. The total absorption areas are 269 m2. and the other third of the side walls; restructuring the
front third of the ceiling as reectors; and treating the
The results of the three proposals are compared with windows similarly to the proposals for room C. The total
each other and with the results for the room parameters absorption areas are 579 m2.
Acoustic improvement on two lecture auditoria 13
0.4 Poor
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
R01 R02 R03 R04 R05 R06
Receivers
Comparison between the values of STI for the current situation and
different proposals
5
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Frequences/HZ
Comparison between the values of C50for the current situation and
different proposals
The second proposal includes xing wooden parquet to reshaping the ceiling and avoidance of late reections from
the ooring, as shown in Figure 17(b) and Table 7. the rear walls, all of the receivers are now located in a good
Moreover, the windows, the ceiling shape and the back zone, as shown in Figure 18(b). The clarity rise above 3 dB
wall are treated as in the rst proposal; the total at mid and high frequencies, as shown in Figure 18(c),
absorption areas are 641 m2. reects the enhancement of the early reection energy and
S/N accordingly.
The two proposals noticeably improve the acoustic qual-
ity of the room; the rst proposal yields better results
despite the fact that it contains a smaller absorptive area by 5. Conclusions
10% compared to the second proposal. This result is justied
for the same reasons previously mentioned in room C. In this The results of the studies performed in this research clarify
proposal, the resulting reverberation time is too close to that selecting the efcient absorptive materials for the rear
Topt at all frequencies, as shown in Figure 18(a). Due to the part of ceiling and distance walls achieves the required
reduction of both L and T, elimination of shadows by total power of absorption, which successfully minimizes the
14 S. Eldakdoky, A. Elkhateeb
late reections and excessive reverberation time to the mainly due to the intrusion of outdoor noise through the
optimal value. Moreover, utilizing proper ceiling shape permanently open windows. Thus, good sound insulation
eliminates the shadow zones and increases the desirable for these windows is vital for any acoustic enhancement.
early reection energy throughout the auditoria. Although In this case, natural ventilation in both rooms should be
this corresponding to the optimal reverberation time and accordingly switched to a mechanical ventilation system.
even distribution of early reections, the negative values of As a result of the excessive reverberation and the high
clarity and poor STI cannot be avoided without decreasing noise levels in both rooms, the values of STI and C50 are
the high background noise. dramatically low, excluding the receivers close to the
Based on an architectural survey, most surfaces in both sound source. In conclusion, the two rooms suffer from low
rooms are reective, which can cause an excessive rever- speech intelligibility.
berant sound. Shape analysis of the two rooms showed The analysis shows that room C requires approximately
that there are many shadow zones that cover more than 1.9 times its current total power of absorption at low
20% of the audience area as a result of the ceiling shape. frequencies or 2.2 times at mid and high frequencies,
These shadows, in addition to the uneven distribution of whereas room RAZ requires approximately 1.6 times its
the early and late reections, divide the audience area in current total power of absorption at low frequencies and
both rooms into medium and hard acoustic zones. The 1.7 times at mid and high frequencies. To improve the
results show that TOcatt highly exceeds Topt at all frequen- acoustics within the two rooms, many scenarios have been
cies; for example, TOcatt at 1 and 2 kHz is higher than Topt examined. Using large area of absorptive materials to achieve
by more than a factor of 2 in room C and 1.5 in room RAZ. the optimal reverberations time may reduce intelligibility due
It is obvious that they are highly reverberant rooms, and to reduced benecial early reections. Thus, the main
room C is the worst because VP in room C is larger by 21%, approach is to achieve the required total power of absorption
although the capacity of room C is smaller than that of using the less area of high absorptive materials at the
room RAZ by 40%. Furthermore, the measured spectra of important frequencies for SI. The proposals also include
Lave (Nc-55) in the two rooms are higher than the improving the STC of the windows and reforming the shape
maximum acceptable noise level (Nc-35) by approximately of the ceiling, either partially or completely, to remove
20 dB in the mid and high frequency ranges. This defect is shadow zones. The analysis of the suggested modications
Acoustic improvement on two lecture auditoria 15
Ex P01 P02
0.8
0.7
Good
0.6
Fair
0.5
STI
0.4
Poor
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
R01 R02 R03 R04 R05 R06
Receivers
Comparison between the values of STI for the current situation and
different proposals
4
3
2
1
0
-1
-2
-3
125 250 500 1000 2000 4000
Frequences/HZ
Comparison between the values of C50for the current situation and
different proposals
Figure 18 Effect of the different proposals on T, STI and clarity in room RAZ.
using CATT software indicates that TOcatt in both rooms Engineering Cairo University, Prof. Dr. Randa Kamel, Prof.
becomes much closer to Topt when covering specic areas of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering- Helwan University
with two different highly absorptive materials. The shape of and Prof. Dr. Mahmoud Taha Prof. of Urban Design, Faculty
the new ceiling was designed to eliminate the shadow zones of Engineering- Helwan University, for their collaboration.
and increase the early reections as well. In conclusion, the
speech intelligibility at all receivers, as can be concluded
from the new values of STI (good) and C50 (approximately
5 dB at mid and high frequency ranges).
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