Acoustical analysis of auditorium with computer aided acoustic simulation

Abstract

Acoustical comfort of the acoustically critical spaces is coming up as important aspect of the designing these days. Unlike in the past where it was achieved with the mere retrofitting after the acoustic discomfort arrives. Recognising the criticality of acoustical comfort especially for spaces like auditorium, meeting and conference rooms etc. right at the designing stage gives advantage in terms of quality, un-necessary retrofitting, and many more issues arriving out of it. It can also save a lot of money by optimizing the acoustic design and avoiding overdesigning, which is very common. This paper deals with the similar study where design optimization of auditorium in the office campus, which was carried out in order to achieve acoustical comfort as well as value engineering. The space is auditorium with the seating capacity of 250 people. Objective of the study is to provide the acoustic comfort for the user by optimizing the acoustic design of the auditorium using Parametric Analysis. The EASE software is used for analysis and predicting the performance of the auditorium for different functions such as speech as well as music performances. Based on the EASE analysis, the acoustic design and the building materials are proposed to achieve the optimum acoustic comfort across various parameters. Substantial amount of quantities for various acoustic materials as well as the cost of the project was reduced by undertaking the acoustical analysis of the auditorium.