Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments
This article addresses the impact of the occupancy level, the average acoustic absorption and the so-called acoustic capacity of a space, which is proportional with the volume and inversely proportional with the reverberation time, on the behavior of talking people in an eating establishments. Four...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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EDP Sciences
2023-01-01
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| Series: | Acta Acustica |
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| Online Access: | https://acta-acustica.edpsciences.org/articles/aacus/full_html/2023/01/aacus220057/aacus220057.html |
| _version_ | 1797776032372097024 |
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| author | Zelem Lukáš Chmelík Vojtech Glorieux Christ Rychtáriková Monika |
| author_facet | Zelem Lukáš Chmelík Vojtech Glorieux Christ Rychtáriková Monika |
| author_sort | Zelem Lukáš |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article addresses the impact of the occupancy level, the average acoustic absorption and the so-called acoustic capacity of a space, which is proportional with the volume and inversely proportional with the reverberation time, on the behavior of talking people in an eating establishments. Four different settings were compared: two casual dining restaurants, a self-service student canteen and a small faculty club. The Lombard effect was observed in all cases. In a restaurant with an average amount of absorbing surface of 2.4 m2 or more per person, the sound pressure level increased with more than 3 dB per doubling of the number of people. Results for the student canteen show that people started to communicate less when the number of people present was so high that the absorbing surface dropped under 1.5 m2/person (80 people). The level even stopped to increase with increasing occupancy from 150 people present and beyond, corresponding with 0.8 m2 of absorbing surface per person. This is roughly consistent with an estimated value for the acoustic capacity of that space, which was 189 people (corresponding with a table occupancy of about 72%). In the latter circumstances, the background noise level, as expressed by LA,95 was as high as 69 dB. Overcoming this level for oral communication would require a not sustainable vocal effort. In the tests performed in other restaurants, the observed occupancy was below 60%, which, thanks to the higher number of absorbing surfaces in those restaurants, was well below the acoustic capacity. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T22:44:08Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5b8be530e50a4219b460bf6f85a0d5c7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2681-4617 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T22:44:08Z |
| publishDate | 2023-01-01 |
| publisher | EDP Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Acustica |
| spelling | doaj.art-5b8be530e50a4219b460bf6f85a0d5c72023-07-21T09:21:26ZengEDP SciencesActa Acustica2681-46172023-01-0173210.1051/aacus/2023026aacus220057Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishmentsZelem Lukáš0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8685-4047Chmelík Vojtech1Glorieux Christ2Rychtáriková Monika3STU Bratislava, Faculty of Civil EngineeringSTU Bratislava, Faculty of Civil EngineeringKU Leuven, Laboratory of Acoustics, Soft Matter and Biophysics, Department of Physics and AstronomyKU Leuven, Department of Architecture, Campus Brussel and GentThis article addresses the impact of the occupancy level, the average acoustic absorption and the so-called acoustic capacity of a space, which is proportional with the volume and inversely proportional with the reverberation time, on the behavior of talking people in an eating establishments. Four different settings were compared: two casual dining restaurants, a self-service student canteen and a small faculty club. The Lombard effect was observed in all cases. In a restaurant with an average amount of absorbing surface of 2.4 m2 or more per person, the sound pressure level increased with more than 3 dB per doubling of the number of people. Results for the student canteen show that people started to communicate less when the number of people present was so high that the absorbing surface dropped under 1.5 m2/person (80 people). The level even stopped to increase with increasing occupancy from 150 people present and beyond, corresponding with 0.8 m2 of absorbing surface per person. This is roughly consistent with an estimated value for the acoustic capacity of that space, which was 189 people (corresponding with a table occupancy of about 72%). In the latter circumstances, the background noise level, as expressed by LA,95 was as high as 69 dB. Overcoming this level for oral communication would require a not sustainable vocal effort. In the tests performed in other restaurants, the observed occupancy was below 60%, which, thanks to the higher number of absorbing surfaces in those restaurants, was well below the acoustic capacity.https://acta-acustica.edpsciences.org/articles/aacus/full_html/2023/01/aacus220057/aacus220057.htmlrestaurantnoise levelvocal effortlombard effectspeech |
| spellingShingle | Zelem Lukáš Chmelík Vojtech Glorieux Christ Rychtáriková Monika Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments Acta Acustica restaurant noise level vocal effort lombard effect speech |
| title | Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments |
| title_full | Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments |
| title_fullStr | Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments |
| title_short | Correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments |
| title_sort | correlation of room acoustic parameters and noise level in eating establishments |
| topic | restaurant noise level vocal effort lombard effect speech |
| url | https://acta-acustica.edpsciences.org/articles/aacus/full_html/2023/01/aacus220057/aacus220057.html |
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