The development of a building acoustics analyser

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a portable, standalone building acoustics measuring instrument that would replace the existing equipment used. The existing equipment consisted of a number of instruments making it bulky and time-consuming to operate. The proposed Building Acoustics Analyser (BAA) was to incorporate all the existing equipment into a single computer-controlled instrument. It was anticipated that the completed instrument would increase the speed of measurements and improve the accuracy of the results. A sound generating section and a sound measuring section of modular design were combined in the BAA. These sections consisted of analog cicuitry that performed all the analog processing and was controlled by digital circuitry. The analog signals were converted to digital format and interfaced to a computer and software package. This enabled measurements to be performed automatically and the data to be stored in memory for further processing. Tests performed on and with the BAA showed that the instrument conformed to all the applicable standards and specifications. The BAA reduced measurement time by about 75 percent and the results proved to be more accurate than the traditional methods. The BAA, because of its modular design, also offers the ability of being modified to perform other types of sound analysis.