Acoustic and Thermal Correlation for a Building’s Envelope in a Mediterranean Climate in Morocco

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to present a comparative analysis of the thermal and acoustic insulations of four different buildings' envelopes: Single layer clay brick wall (Wall(a)), Single layer concrete brick wall (Wall(b)), double layer hollow brick wall with a medium of polystyrene (Wall(c)) and double layer hollow brick wall with a medium of air (Wall(d)), which are all modelled and simulated by using finite element method (FEM) under different climatic conditions. Moreover, the study of noise transmission through these walls was released by placing a linear nonmonochromatic source of sound 1m away from the exterior side of each wall and it is emitted sound waves with a velocity of 200 m/s with low frequencies, while an acoustical comparative analysis was investigated under the same thermal conditions as the two previous steady states study. The analysis of the heat transfer and sound pressure level (SPL) variations through the walls (a), (b), (c) and (d) shows that the wall (d) is a good thermal and sound insulator compared to the walls (a), (b) and (c) due to the insulation by air gap with a thickness of 0.06 m, it provides a high rate of sound pressure level attenuation compared to the other walls under study. Finally, the insulation by air-gap gives is good enough to ensure simultaneously energy savings and acoustic comfort.