Standards and legislation in acoustics
Building acoustics
In recent years, the consideration of the flanking transmission between rooms has become an important topic in building acoustics. CEN/TC 126/WG 2 has proposed a series of innovative standards for the calculation of the apparent sound reduction index between adjoining rooms and between a room and outside. See for example:
EN 12354 Building acoustics; estimation of acoustic performance of buildings from the performance of products. Part 1: airborne sound insulation between rooms, CEN, 2000.
EN 12354, Building acoustics; estimation of acoustic performance of buildings from the performance of products. Part 2: Impact sound insulation between rooms, CEN, 2000.
CEN/TC126/WG6, Laboratory measurement of the flanking transmission of airborne and impact noise between adjoining rooms, 1999.
The Group of Applied Acoustics of the University of Bologna has a specific research project
for the measurements of the vibration reduction index in building structures, both in
laboratory and in situ. Members of the Department are involved in the relevant
UNI and CEN working groups. For further details see:
Research on building acoustics at DIENCA
City planning
Design of the procedures needed to comply with the Italian Law 447/95 and its related Decrees.
The Group of Applied Acoustics of the University of Bologna is carring on a specific
research project for the measurements of the sound absorption coefficient of road
surfaces in situ. The research project can exploit the general techniques developed for
testing the acoustic properties of materials using MLS
signals. Qualification tests were performed, in close cooperation with other research teams,
like: LCPC, Nantes (France); ARPAT, Firenze (Italy); ARPA, Modena (Italy).
DIN participated as main partner to a research project funded by the European Commission
(Adrienne project, 1995-97) and having the aim to assess a
new method for testing the absorption and airborne sound insulation of noise reducing devices.
The method works both in laboratory and in situ, for flat and non flat products and can be
used for noise barriers installed along roads, railways and, in general, outdoors.
The new method has been selected by CEN/TC 226/WG 6
for inclusion in the standard package:
EN 1793 "Road traffic noise reducing devices - Test methods for determining the
acoustic performance"
which includes five parts:
1793-1: Intrinsic characteristics - Sound absorption;
Design and construction of a laboratory apparatus for airflow resistance measurements complying with UNI EN 29053:1993.
For further details, see the thesis work (in Italian):
For an application case, see the thesis work (in Italian):
M. Balboni,
"Classificazione acustica del territorio: definizione
delle procedure e applicazione ad un caso reale",
Università di Bologna, Facoltà di Ingegneria, A.A. 1997-98.
The method has been selected by ISO/TC 43/SC 1/WG 38
to become an international standard:
Noise barriers
1793-2: Intrinsic characteristics - Airborne sound insulation;
1793-3: Normalized traffic noise spectrum;
1793-4: Intrinsic characteristics - In situ values of sound diffraction;
1793-5: Intrinsic characteristics - In situ values of sound absorption and airborne sound
insulation.
Airflow resistance measurements
F. Pompoli,
"Progettazione e realizzazione di un’apparecchiatura per
la misura delle resistenza al flusso d’aria a norma UNI EN 29053",
Università di Bologna, Facoltà di Ingegneria, A.A. 1997-98.
Moreover, the first European inter-laboratory test on airflow resistivity measurement has been organised and co-ordinated.
The results were published on Acta Acustica united with Acustica in 2003.