Effects of thermal-acoustic interaction on comfort under office behaviors - taking air-conditioning noise as an example

Abstract

Thermal-acoustic interaction holds significant importance in the development of subjective perception prediction models. While previous studies on this topic mainly focused on perceptual changes, the differences related to various office behaviors were not fully considered. This study aims to investigate the effects of thermal-acoustic interaction on comfort during different office behaviors (such as rest, reading, writing, and typing) using air-conditioning noise as an example in a laboratory setting. The results, obtained within the near thermal comfort zone, demonstrate that: (1) thermal sensation was significantly affected by temperature across all four office behaviors, but thermal comfort was not significantly affected; (2) subjective loudness and acoustic comfort were influenced by temperature during reading, with the lowest scores observed at 23; (3) sound pressure level significantly affected overall comfort and overall annoyance across all office behaviors, while temperature influenced overall comfort during reading and writing. These findings underscore the importance of effective thermal-acoustic environment adjustments and the establishment of more accurate and quantitative models for predicting subjective perception. Keywords: Thermal-acoustic interaction, Office behaviors, Comfort, Air-conditioning noise