The objective of this research is to develop a method to enable architects and their consultants to predict the acoustical qualities of buildings during the design process in an economical and timely manner. The results of an earlier NSF Research Initiation grant have shown that ultrasonic scaling of impulse response tests made in small-size study models has the potential to provide a wide range of acoustical information to designers. There are 4 main components to the research: 1. An extensive series of acoustical measurements will be gathered in many types of existing buildings with varying acoustical qualities to serve as a design data base. 2. The objective measurements made in the buildings will be related to the subjective assessment of the acoustical quality of the buildings by listeners to determine which measures are useful as acoustical design criteria. 3. Acoustical models of the buildings studies in item 1. above will be tested to further understand which criteria provide the most useful design information in the modeling process. 4. A multichannel data acquisition and digital analysis system (Acoustical Research Instrumentation for Architectural Spaces (ARIAS)) will be developed to enable detailed acoustical analysis at multiple locations in occupied or unoccupied buildings and in acoustical models ranging in scale from 1:10 to 1:100 to be performed.
