Acoustics

An important part of building design is considering the internal working environment - for offices, residential, education and leisure, acoustics is one of the most important factors to consider.

There are three characteristics to consider - Sound Reduction, Sound Absorption and Sound Intensity.

Sound Reduction

is the ability of a system to prevent sound from passing through it. This is principally achieved by reflecting the sound back towards it source. This is important where working environments require external noise sources to be reduced, or equally where internal production and machinery noise must be prevented from causing noise pollution.

Built Up systems in general perform remarkably well, offering an excellent level of sound reduction, typically in the order of 40 or more decibels reduction. This is because of the make up of the system, with breaks and interfaces across the system that serve to reduce noise transmission. By comparison, composite panels perform poorly acoustically.

This is because of the nature of the product - being a laminated series of components, any energy influence experienced on one side of the composite is readily transmitted to the opposite face, therefore noise energy is readily transmitted through a composite panel.

Sound Absorption

is important where the internal environment may generate noise which should be prevented from reverberating within the building. In order to achieve this, a perforated liner sheet is used and dense acoustic mineral fibre insulation used to absorb the sound energy within the construction. A small part of the noise may be reflected back within the building, but most of the noise energy will either escape through the system or be absorbed within it. Built up systems can accommodate acoustic absorption easily, by simply substituting the normal liner profile for a perforated liner, including an acoustic insulation slab within the build up as well as a separate polythene vapour control payer to maintain the air tightness of the system.The result is a very good level of acoustic absorption.

By comparison, composite panels cannot offer any acoustic absorption, and the only means of achieving this is to install a built up system below the composite panel - a separate perforated liner and acoustic insulation. Even so the performance of this type of construction falls short of that of an acoustic built up roof system.

Sound Intensity

is a measure of the rain noise that may be experienced inside the building during a severe downpour. Generally, systems with a good sound reduction will perform better, i.e. have a lower sound intensity.

Tests comparing various different systems, from composite panels, single ply membranes, trapezoidal profiles and low-pitch systems, demonstrated that Aluminium Standing Seam roof system perform very well, and have a very low sound intensity (40 decibels at 1000 hertz frequency).By comparison composite panels, as discussed, perform roughly the same as a single sheet of trapezoidal profile, and it is likely that any significant rainfall would be disruptive within the building.

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