Reverberation time regulations for stairwells and corridors – A pilot study for housing and schools in selected countries in Europe
Acoustic regulations or guidelines for schools exist in all five Nordic countries. The acoustic criteria depend on room uses and deal with airborne and impact sound insulation, reverberation time, sound absorption, traffic noise, service equipment noise and other acoustic performance characteristics...
| Main Authors: | , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Spanish Acoustical Society
2018
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://vbn.aau.dk/da/publications/a4e78e40-4dfd-434a-a3c6-db6713d58695 https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/290629342/FIA2018_AED_4_003_1_RevTimeRegulationsStairwellsCorridors_TC_BiR.pdf http://www.sea-acustica.es/index.php?id=545 http://www.sea-acustica.es/fileadmin/Cadiz18/AED-4_003.pdf |
| Summary: | Acoustic regulations or guidelines for schools exist in all five Nordic countries. The acoustic criteria depend on room uses and deal with airborne and impact sound insulation, reverberation time, sound absorption, traffic noise, service equipment noise and other acoustic performance characteristics. In four of the countries – Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – schools are also included in voluntary classification schemes published as the national standards SFS, IST, NS and SS. These classification schemes have four quality levels with the same denotations A, B, C and D, but otherwise not identical. The national criteria for quality level C correspond to the national regulations or recommendations for new-build. The quality levels A and B are intended to define better acoustic performance than C, and D lower performance. Typically, acoustic regulations and classification criteria for schools have become more extensive and stricter during the last two decades. The paper focuses on comparison of sound insulation and reverberation time criteria for classrooms in regulations and classification schemes in the Nordic countries. Limit values and changes over time will be discussed as well as how the role of classification schemes could be optimized in the future. Noise in stairwells and corridors is often disturbing to people in the rooms and in adjoining rooms, especially in housing and in schools. For that reason, several European countries include reverberation time requirements in their acoustic regulations as a way to control noise in stairwells and other communal areas. However, acoustic requirements vary widely between countries and are missing in some countries. This paper compares reverberation time and sound absorption requirements for stairwells and corridors for housing and schools in selected countries in Europe, and it includes up-to-date information on the applied limit values, frequency ranges, measurement standards and verification procedures. |
|---|