Analysis of the acoustical environment of classrooms in three brazilian public schools through measurements and 3d simulation

Abstract

The present study analyses the outdoor and indoor sound pressure levels (SPL) and the reverberation time (RT) measured in three Brazilian public classrooms. For the SPL, a sound level analyzer (class II) was used, and for the RT it was used a smartphone for the measurements. The sound sources were the impulses of bursting balloons and the data was processed in a MatLab toolbox (ITA-Toolbox). The classrooms were also simulated in an open source modeling software (I-SIMPA), using ray-tracing principles. Based on the results of the simulations, supported by the low-cost measurements, it was observed that the classroom didn't reach the national standards for classroom acoustics. Some improvements were designed with sustainable materials in order to reach the lower limits of the standards using the same room acoustics software. It was observed that the low-cost measurements helped on the diagnosis of classroom's acoustic issues which was also verified in the 3D simulation. This procedure showed itself as a cheap solution for classroom acoustic designs.