Estimation of incident energy angular distribution at the building envelope in urban environment

Abstract

This paper presents preliminary results of a research dedicated to noise analysis at the building envelope using microphone arrays. Motif for such a research is a dependence of façade elements insulation characteristics on incident angles of noise impeding a façade. The goal is to determine the influence of different building and street configurations on the discrepancies between laboratory and in-situ values of façade elements sound insulation, and develop a model for predicting in-situ façade performances depending on building surroundings. Microphone array mounted on a façade can provide an insight into impeding noise energy distribution over angles of arrival. This distribution is examined for a number of different scenarios, including buildings in canyon and non-canyon streets, different mounting heights of the array, different widths of streets etc. Planar array consisting of 24 microphones with a diameter of 2.2 m is used for measurements. Results for given scenarios are presented and compared with a discussion on building surroundings influence on the performances of their façade elements.