The Problem:
Have you been in an apartment or hotel room when those pesky neighbours are stomping around on the floor above you? Densification of housing is leading to more medium-rise, multi-tenancy buildings in NZ. Projections suggest that by 2050 such dwellings will constitute 30% of Auckland’s housing stock. Traditionally, sound insulation between dwellings has focused on speech privacy, underestimating disturbances such as impacts on floors which cause noise at low frequencies (e.g. foot-fall or elevator noise) and result in distraction, annoyance, disturbed sleep and reduced productivity. That impact noise has become a pressing problem, as evidenced by the growth in noise complaints that accompany the rise in multi-family dwellings relative to single-family separated houses.
Our goal is to enable the construction industry to provide occupants with “a quiet atmosphere with a high level of protection against intruding sound”, specifically thudding, thumping and footfalls, and to manufacture acoustic products that are both sustainable and internationally desirable.
Science:
The main challenge is that floor impacts generate vibrations over a wide range of audible frequencies. Existing approaches have limited effectiveness, especially at low frequencies where the greatest disturbances (thumping sounds) occur. You will investigate the use of granular materials as a novel means of noise mitigation. You will develop new damping panels with integrated granular materials. Vibrations travelling through such materials are considerably reduced by acoustic dispersion and damping and are predicted to be particularly effective for low frequencies.
Why choose this project:
This project is largely a hands-on project. You will be making and testing things, with some simulation investigations. Make an impact on the health and wellbeing of our society by helping to fix what is becoming a major health issue for modern housing. This project involves:
· Experimental testing of floor systems on both small and large scale
· Fabrication of small and large-scale panels using 3D printing, laser cutting and CNC routing
· Modelling using acoustic consulting industry-standard commercial software (good for the CV 😊)
· Potential for commercial outcomes and industry contacts
Team
The Acoustics Testing Service is a world-class commercial testing facility at UoA and as such, has an extensive range of industry contacts in the construction industry and a large array of experimental testing equipment used for testing to the G6 building code.
As part of the Acoustic Research Centre at the University of Auckland (UoA), Supervisors Dr Andrew Hall and Dr George Dodd, are leading specialists in building acoustics with 60+ years of collective experience in research. In addition, you will have guidance from Senior Technologist Gian Schmid and will work alongside our fantastic PhD student, helping to develop granular material systems.
Undergraduate
None
Acoustics Lab (City 422.154, Lab)