How do acoustic materials work?

Abstract

Acoustic quality of closed spaces is an increasing concern all around the world, since noise pollution is one of the main nowadays pollutants, but also one of the less considered when building designing and construction. In 2011, the World Health Organization stated that noise pollution should be treated as a public health concern: about 1 million years of human healthy life are lost yearly because of the environmental noise pollution, emphasizing on traffic noise in the cities. There are some physics phenomena that are the rule of thumb for room acoustic projects. This chapter introduces the main concepts about them: sound absorption, insulation, and diffusion. Their principles, main implementation, and computing are presented for each one.