Acoustic Barriers

An acoustic barrier may be an acoustic wall such as that close to a motorway designed to reduce noise propagation or a partition between two volumes/rooms to reduce noise transmission.

The acoustic performance of barriers come into play in many different systems:

• Exterior walls, windows and doors of buildings to reduce noise from outside.
• Interior walls and ceilings to reduce noise from adjacent rooms.
• Fences along the side of busy roads to reduce noise propagation to nearby dwellings.

There are a number of particular features that control the transmission loss performance of an acoustic partition:

• Mass per unit area
• Single or double layer
• Leakage
• Isolation of multiple layers
• Absorption between layers
• Panel damping

A barrier that reduces the noise on one side, such as the interior of a building. These may be described by a transmission loss or sound transmission class.

See also: Building Acoustics, Coincidence, Decibel, Double Acoustic Barrier, Flanking Sound Transmission, Holes in Acoustic Barriers, Room Acoustics, Single Acoustic Barrier, Sound Transmission Class, Sound Transmission Loss.