Material Absorption / Deflection / Passthrough

mike c

mike c

Audioholic Warlord
do you guys know of studies/charts of sound frequencies in relation to material ... e.g.

1/4" plywood : 50hz : Bounce / semi pass through
3/4" plywood : 63hz : Bounce
Glass : 10hz : Passthrough
Curtain : 10khz : Absorb

(above are random numbers)
 
avaserfi

avaserfi

Audioholic Ninja
Various materials, depending on thickness, act differently. I am not aware of any information like you are asking, but this site might be a good starting place.
 
mike c

mike c

Audioholic Warlord
Various materials, depending on thickness, act differently. I am not aware of any information like you are asking, but this site might be a good starting place.
i'm not actually interested in the acoustic absorption of the "panels", but the absorption/deflection of the material behind the panel.

e.g. i have a concrete wall (definite bounce on any frequency) = putting a panel in front of this is very efficient because there will a lot of sound waves on the wall surface.

e.g.2 i have a glass window with a panel in front of it, if the bass frequencies pass through the glass anyway, that would be an inefficient location for a "bass trap", right? (depending on the frequency)

e.g.3 i have a dry wall with either 1/4" cement board or 1/4" plywood ... i want to know if the low bass frequencies can pass through these materials or bounce off and at what frequency.
 
B

bpape

Audioholic Chief
Just because a window passes bass out doesn't mean it's an appropriate place for a bass absorber. Bass absorbtion needs to go where it can address specific issues you're having (nulls off the rear wall, corners, etc.)

Bryan
 
mike c

mike c

Audioholic Warlord
Just because a window passes bass out doesn't mean it's an appropriate place for a bass absorber. Bass absorbtion needs to go where it can address specific issues you're having (nulls off the rear wall, corners, etc.)

Bryan
exactly my point. i was thinking if the glass passes the bass straight through, there's no bouncing going on to utilize the panel twice (in and back out) - in fact, if the bass passes through completely, the panel is totally useless at those frequencies.

BUT, my problem really was that those windows were at the first reflection points. i have since put 3/4" wood/mdf panels over those windows.

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?p=424510&postcount=251
 
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B

bpape

Audioholic Chief
OK. Still, since it's a side (assumption) reflection point, it's still not likely to be a good place for bass absorbtion to be most effective. It will impact decay time but not likely much in the frequency domain.

Bryan
 
Savant

Savant

Audioholics Resident Acoustics Expert
Bass (or any frequency range) doesn't completely pass through any material. Some energy is transmitted ("pass-through"), some is absorbed, and some is reflected.

The amount of low frequency energy transmitted through something like glass is significant. There is also a not insignificant amount that is reflected. There is also a not insignificant amount that is absorbed, particularly at the resonant frequencies of the glass.

The amount of each will depend on a variety of factors, such as thickness of glass, type of glass, mounting, an so forth.

Same goes for plywood and other similarly rigid/solid building materials.

When considering room acoustics, one needn't worry too much about the transmission very much, unless isolation is a concern (it usually is). How the room sounds will depend purely on the absorptivity / reflectivity. These are related to the transmissibility of the panel, but the transmissibility is not something that needs to be known explicitly if the absorption coefficients of the construction can be found or determined.

Unfortunately, you are not going to find much in the way of measured absorption data for, say, plywood over studs. There are methods to estimate it, though.

Also, putting, say, MDF over glass will increase the reflection and reduce the absorption at low frequencies. This may or may not be desirable. If the primary concern is mid and high frequency reflections from the glass, then heavy curtains are the simplest approach. A better solution would be some sort of mid / high absorber over the glass (or MDF, if you prefer).

For low frequency control, the preferred approach is properly placed low frequency (or broadband) absorbers, which is covered in many threads.

If you like, we can offer more specific advice if you'd like to post some room dimensions, pics, etc.
 
W

Weasel9992

Junior Audioholic
Well put, Jeff.

I've never been able to find much, and I've looked. I used have a book on materials acoustics back from college, but I can't find that now either.

Frank
 
Savant

Savant

Audioholics Resident Acoustics Expert
A very useful reference is "Sound Absorption of Gypsum Board Cavity Walls" by J.S. Bradley, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society (JAES) Vol. 45. No. 4, pp. 253-259, April 1997. Useful predictive equations with empirical data to back up the predictions. And, of course, the methods given in the paper are applicable to materials other than gyp. board.
 
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