Assessment of acoustic comfort in a hostel building inside an educational campus

Abstract

In the contemporary built environment, noise has emerged as one of the most pervasive and pressing issues across all building typologies. However, in recent times, an enhanced cognizance of the adverse impacts of noise pollution on human health has taken root. Specifically, within educational campuses, hostels, as the primary abode for most students, have been identified as sites where the assurance of indoor acoustic comfort is critical to bolster productive endeavors. However, the assessment of indoor acoustic comfort remains a less researched facet of indoor environmental quality. As a response to this knowledge lacuna, our research puts forth an innovative methodology that facilitates the assessment of the acoustic comfort of hostel buildings while meticulously analyzing the factors that impact the occupants' acoustic comfort. A case study hostel at the NIT Trichy campus has been selected, and two rooms from the same hostel block have been identified for further examination. The outdoor sound level is gauged at 2 meters from the facade, while the indoor sound level is assessed at the center of each room.
Additionally, the reverberation time is measured in both rooms using the Bedrock SM 30 class -2 sound level meter. The collated data has been processed, and the results have been obtained. Furthermore, the methodology, as proposed by Project New TREND, has been employed to assign an acoustic class for each room. Room 1 has been categorized under class B, with a KPI of 4 points, while Room 2 has been allocated to class C, with a KPI of 3 points. This research posits a novel methodology that can enable designers to evaluate the acoustic class of hostels, which, in turn, can help them optimize facade elements to accentuate the indoor acoustic comfort.