Field measurement of airborne sound insulation between rooms with non-diffuse sound fields at low frequencies

Abstract

Procedures for the field measurement of airborne sound insulation between rooms with diffuse fields are described in International Standard ISO 140-4. However, many dwellings contain rooms with volumes less than 50m3, where low frequency measurements are less reliable; hence there is a need for a measurement procedure to improve the reliability of field measurements in rooms with non-diffuse fields. Procedures are proposed for sound pressure level and reverberation time measurements for the 50, 63 and 80Hz third octave bands. The sound pressure level measurement combines corner microphone positions with positions in the central region of each room. This provides a good estimate of the room average sound pressure level with significantly improved repeatability.