Building acoustics: From prediction models to auralization

Following the processes of international harmonization, measurement methods for sound insulation material and prediction models for characterization of field situations were recently reviewed. In the area of prediction, a great step was made towards a physically sound and practical method for describing noise sources of airborne and structureborne sound in buildings, the transmission in the building structure and radiation into the receiving room. The subsystems of a building, its beams, plates and cavities can be assumed to show statistical modal behaviour. Hence the modal density is sufficiently large for purely energetic considerations using, for example, statistical energy analysis. On the basis of this prediction model and its results in frequency bands, an algorithm of digital signal processing can be added which enables modelling of the sound signal flowing through the building and to the receiver. The auralized sound can be used in various applications: The method opens the possibility to demonstrate effects, also in teaching, to investigate sound effects and annoyance, by variation of construction parameters and systematic listening tests or psychoacoustic analysis.