Detta är en interventionsstudie av hur rumsakustiken i ett klassrum påverkar en lektion beträffande tidseffektivisering samt taluppfattbarhet. Studien jämför resultat av olika mätningar och tester före och efter en rumsakustisk åtgärd i form av ett nedpendlat akustiktak. Åtgärden utförs i ett klassrum på S:t Hansskolan i Visby, i syfte att undersöka huruvida en förbättring av ljudmiljön i klassrummet kan ge positiva samhällsekonomiska effekter. De mätningar och tester som genomförts ger tillsammans en bild av klassrummets akustiska egenskaper före och efter åtgärden. Mätningarna innefattar tidtagning av uppstartstid av en lektion samt olika rumsakustiska mätningar och tester beträffande taluppfattbarhet. Mätningar visar att klassrummets ljudmiljö efter den rumsakustiska åtgärden har förbättrats med kortare efterklangstider, förbättrade förhållanden med rummets reflexer samt ett förbättrat talöverföringsindex. Även ett lyssningstest har genomförts och resultaten visar att taluppfattbarheten har ökats. Lärarens tidtagning visar att uppstartstiden förkortats med åtminstone 15 minuter per vecka. Sammantaget visar studien att den rumsakustiska åtgärden inneburit en ökning i nyttjad lektionstid som dessutom blivit mer effektiv genom en uppmätt ökad taluppfattbarhet. Observerade nyttoeffekter anses väga tyngre än investeringskostnaden till den grad att installationen rekommenderas till befintliga skolmiljöer och inte bara vid nyproduktion. / This is an interventional study of how classroom acoustics affects a class in regards to time effectiveness and speech intelligibility. The study compares results of measurements and tests before and after acoustical treatments in the form of a new acoustic ceiling. The treatments are made in a classroom in S:t Hansskolan elementary school, with the aim to see whether an improvement in room acoustics can lead to socio economic gains through an increase in the effective time for a lesson. The combined measurements and tests show the state of the acoustical environment before and after the treatments. Measurements includes the time it takes to get a lesson going, as well as various acoustical measurements and tests regarding speech intelligibility. Results shows that the room acoustics have improved with reduced reverberation times, an increase in early reflexes compared to late, as well as improved speech transmission index values. The class also scores higher on hearing in noise tests, which implies an increase in speech intelligibility. The teacher’s timekeeping shows that the time it takes to start classes has shortened by at least 15 minutes per week. On a whole the study shows that the acoustic treatments has led to an increase in use of planned time for each lesson, which through increased speech intelligibility also has become more effective. Observed socio economic effects outweigh the cost of the installation to the point that it is recommended not only to new classrooms but also to existing school environments.

The sound produced by military aircraft is dominated by noise generated by the turbulent mixing of the jetted exhaust with the ambient air. This jet noise has the potential to annoy the community and pose a hearing loss risk for military personnel. The goal of this dissertation is to characterize spatiospectral features in the field produced by full-scale military aircraft that are not traditionally seen at the laboratory scale and identify potential noise mechanisms for these features. Measurements of two military aircraft jet noise fields are found to be best described as a superposition of spatiospectral lobes, whose relative amplitudes dictate the overall directivity at each engine power. Near-field acoustical holography techniques are applied to one of the military aircraft measurements to characterize the behavior of the lobes as a function of engine power. The simulated jet noise of a highly heated laboratory-scale jet is then analyzed to compare with the military aircraft measurement and is found to only partially contain the spatiospectral lobe phenomenon. Application of near to far field coherence tracing and near-field acoustical holography to the simulations provides validation of the methods used on the military aircraft and illuminate potential source mechanisms that may explain the presence of the spatiospectral lobes.

The noise emissions of jets from full-scale engines installed on military aircraft pose a significant hearing loss risk to military personnel. Noise reduction technologies and the development of operational procedures that minimize noise exposure to personnel are enhanced by the accurate characterization of noise sources within a jet. Hence, more than six decades of research have gone into jet noise measurement and prediction. In the past decade, the noise-source visualization tool near-field acoustical holography (NAH) has been applied to jets. NAH fits a weighted set of expansion wave functions, typically planar, cylindrical, or spherical, to measured sound pressures in the field. NAH measurements were made of a jet from an installed engine on a military aircraft. In the present study, the algorithm of statistically optimized NAH (SONAH) is modified to account for the presence of acoustic reflections from the concrete surface over which the jet was measured. The three dimensional field in the jet vicinity is reconstructed, and information about sources is inferred from reconstructions at the boundary of the turbulent jet flow. Then, a partial field decomposition (PFD) is performed, which represents the total field as the superposition of multiple, independent partial fields. This is the most direct attempt to equate partial fields with independent sources in a jet to date.

Phononic crystals are structures composed of periodically arranged scatterers in a background medium that affect the transmission of elastic waves. They have garnered much interest in recent years for their macro-scale properties that can be modulated by the micro-scale components. The elastic properties of the composite materials, the contrast in the elastic properties of the composite materials, and the material arrangement all directly affect how an elastic wave will behave as it propagates through the sonic structure. The behavior of an elastic wave in a periodic structure is revealed in its transmission bandstructure, and modification of any the elastic parameters will result in tuning of the band structure. In this dissertation, a phononic crystal with properties that can be modulated using electromagnetic radiation, and more specifically, radio-frequency (RF) light will be presented.

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No description available.

Due to the usefulness of sonic logs in formation evaluation, efforts have been made to develop a method for calculating pseudosonic logs for wells in which sonic logs were not originally obtained. These efforts attempt to use electrical resistivity data in the calculation of pseudosonic logs by means of empirical scale functions. The purpose of this study is to examine ways of applying these relationships in relatively shallow wells where the principal formation fluid is fresh or brackish water. Data from four wells situated in Brunswick, Georgia were used in this study. Conventional focused resistivity logs are sensitive to beds as thin as one foot and can provide detail similar to that seen on sonic logs. Focused resistivity logs should be best for conversion to pseudosonic logs in shallow wells, where invasion is minimal and the water used for drilling fluid has electrical resistivity close to that of formation water. Sonic and resistivity logs from a representative well are needed in the procedure for finding an empirical relationship between sonic transit time and resistivity. Values of transit time plotted versus resistivity are read from corresponding depths on both types of logs. The graphs obtained in this study reveal significantly more scatter than previously published graphs based upon deep well data. An important feature clearly evident in the graphs is the presence of groups of points which me offset from each other. A separate scale function relating transit time and resistivity can be obtained from each group of points. It is noted that the different groups correspond to differences ir1 the chlorinity of the formation water. The results of this study indicate that it is necessary to consider the salinity of the formation water as well as electrical resistivity for purposes of calculating pseudosonic logs. In previous studies three constant coefficients were deterrnined experimentally in order to obtain an empirical scale function. The present study suggests that it may be possible to replace these constants with chlorinity dependent coefficients. The final results of this study indicate that reasonably reliable pseudosonic logs can be obtained only by using high quality focused resistivity logs from wells where information about the salinity of the formation water is also available. / Master of Science

The objective of this thesis is the algorithmic enhancement and initial evaluation of an underwater acoustic positioning system which is designed to determine the position and orientation of a mobile nuclear reactor vessel inspection robot. Although a great deal of research has been done in the area of underwater acoustic positioning, this work differs from previous work in three significant ways. First, most applied acoustic positioning systems have been designed for the offshore oil drilling industry, and thus their requirements and restrictions are dictated by an oceanic environment. Second, most previous work has focused only upon acquiring the position of a point from the acoustic system. The inspection robot operation requires accurate positioning and orientation. Finally, the accuracy of acoustic positioning systems is generally dependent upon an evaluation of the speed of sound. However, this parameter is highly dependent upon water temperature. As will be discussed, the reactor vessel water temperature may not be uniform or constant, which makes the design of a precise positioning system difficult. Original methods to overcome this obstacle are discussed and evaluated. Also examined are configurations and constraints of the acoustic transceivers, the numerical solution procedures utilized, and the resulting errors associated with the developed methods. / Master of Science

A simple, effective design for enclosing portable generators to reduce the radiated noise is an idea that seems to be desired by the consumers in this market. This investigation is to determine the feasibility of producing such an enclosure for a generator. Several engineering aspects are incorporated in the design of the enclosure. The first, and probably the most paramount, are the acoustical effects of the enclosure itself. The investigation follows the theories for insertion loss of a close fitting enclosure. The thesis examines the system behavior of a close fitting enclosure that most acoustic text books ignore and how the material stiffness, density and source-to-enclosure distance affect the insertion loss and effectiveness of the enclosure. Measured and theoretical sound pressure level around the generator before and after the application of the enclosure are presented using standards described by ISO standard 1344. The second important consideration for the enclosure design involves the heat transfer characteristics. The requirements of cooling air to the generator are discussed. Also presented are some acoustic design considerations to prevent any "direct line of sight" to any of the necessary openings which will help in the overall insertion loss. The use of an optimal engineering design technique is presented, demonstrating its strengths and weakness in this application. The optimization method used for the study is the Hooke and Jeeves, or pattern search method. This method solved for the optimum material properties in approximately 30 iterations depending on the initial starting points and the desired weighting parameters. / Master of Science

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