Research Outline

The research in Acoutect is structure in three themes: design, products and evaluation.

Design: Prediction models for room acoustics and sound insulation are essential for acoustic consultants and the building industry at the design stage to prevent costly construction mistakes, which must be rectified before the building can be occupied. The intention is to enable researchers to develop state-of-the-art computer modelling methods and skills relevant to the building industry, and thereby tackle current design problems in room acoustics and sound insulation. 

Products: Five Acoutect Fellows will study advances in noise and vibration for building structures and materials. This will consider vibro-acoustic material systems as well as techniques for their proper identification (to provide input for the prediction models developed in the design theme). 

Evaluation: There are increasing demands from building occupants to avoid irritation and annoyance from their neighbour’s everyday activities. This has become a significant challenge with modern lightweight buildings and the increasing availability of low-frequency sound sources in dwellings such as sub-woofers with TV and audio systems, heavy traffic in inner-city environments or even walker inside space (e.g. in an open office space). In particular, there is a lack of knowledge as to how subjective assessment varies across different countries and cultures in Europe. Even though there have been several attempts to investigate the subjective aspects of sound insulation with focus on low frequencies, there are still gaps in our knowledge.