A model investigation of the acoustical performance of courtyard houses with respect to noise from road traffic

Oldham, D.J.; Mohsen, Effat A.

doi:10.1016/0003-682x(79)90024-0

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Inclined ceilings did not yield positive noise reduction in lower building stories but reached a maximum reduction of 9.4 dB on the 11th floor, which was attributed to varying incident angles from the sound source. As reported by various studies [4][5][6][7][8][9][10], acoustic treatment of wall surfaces could reduce road traffic noise by approximately 10-15 dBA, depending on balcony geometry, street geometry, and noise sources. The design incorporating absorbing materials on both the ceiling and inner side of the parapet demonstrated the highest noise reduction.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 81%

Performance Evaluation of Balcony Designs for Mitigating Ground Level Noise

Tan,

Ang

2024

Acoustics

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This study aims to tackle the challenge of high noise levels on balconies while preserving natural ventilation. Eight innovative balcony designs, incorporating elements like diffuser edges, undulating ceilings, Helmholtz resonators, grooves, or sound traps, were evaluated via finite element (FE) modeling. The insertion loss results showed that for many balcony designs, noise reduction in the balcony could deteriorate beyond an elevation of 8 m. However, the front jagged and full wavy ceiling designs were shown to be more robust in noise attenuation across balconies on different floors. The jagged ledge and grooved parapet designs yielded an overall 1.5 dBA lower SPL at the exterior regions, compared to other designs, which implies that the designs are less acoustically detrimental to nearby residential blocks as they tend to diffract and absorb incident noise. The jagged ledge design is more effective for lower floors while the jagged ceiling design is more effective for higher floors. A combination of the protruded jagged ledge for the lower floor and jagged balcony ceiling for the higher floor would result in the lowest noise ingress over three stories of residential units: this would be capable of achieving more than 3 dB noise reduction and would offer viable options for improving balcony noise mitigation, by providing valuable insights to architects and designers seeking practical solutions for outdoor noise reduction. Our study highlights that whereas the spectrum characteristics of acoustic absorption materials may be less tunable, and where reduced head space is traded for thicker material for greater ab-sorption and added affixation and maintenance cost, the jagged ledge and ceiling curvatures can actually be shape-tuned, say for every 3 to 4 floors up the high-rise to more effective reduce noise ingress and possibly improve the architecture façade outlook.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 81%

Performance Evaluation of Balcony Designs for Mitigating Ground Level Noise

Tan,

Ang

2024

Acoustics

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“…The most significant parameter on reducing the noise level experienced is the height of the courtyard walls. Width and depth of the courtyard configuration had negligible variance (Oldham & Mohsen, 1979).…”

Section: Footprint and Height Of The Courtyardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of Internal Courtyards on the Energy Load and Hours of Illuminance in Row Houses in Toronto

Horvat¹

2022

Preprint

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Natural daylight is desirable in locations where winter days are short. With narrow front and long depth, row houses interiors in Toronto tend to be dark, as natural light cannot penetrate to the central portion of the house. This study aims to contribute to the development of guidelines for designers using courtyards to create better space quality and to add to occupants’ delight, health and wellbeing. It examines the potential benefits and drawbacks of internal courtyards in houses located in cold climates and the implications of such design on the energy performance, natural light and lighting consumption. The simulations showed that the window to wall ratio doesn’t have major influence on the hours of daylight inside the house. The main results also show significant improvement of the hours of illuminance in the interior, with higher increases in the shorter days of the year when light is more needed.

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“…Courtyards largely turn their back on the outside world, which lends all courtyards a peaceful and protected air; they often suggest intimacy and conversation and share a brightly echoing acoustic (Ettouney & Fricke, 1973;Oldham & Mohsen, 1979) in which anyone arriving is somehow heralded by the amplified clipclop of feet or horse shoes (Matteo Bandello, Novelle 2.11). But courtyards also communicate qualities specific to a period, from the piety and collectedness of dolce stil novo to the humanism and rationality of the renaissance (like the Palazzo Ducale in Urbino), from the theatrical luxury and sensual pomp of the baroque (like Somerset House in London) to the tall, shared backyard of nineteenth-century tenements for the proletariat.…”

Section: The Place and Function Of The Courtyardmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Courtyard Inside and Out: a Brief History of an Architectural Ambiguity

Nelson

2014

ENQ

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Observing several advantages of architecture that incorporates an internal courtyard, this paper traces the history of the motif through the evidence of building archetypes and lexical and literary records. Despite the literal centrality of courtyards to so many traditions of urban construction, the motif proves quite weak in contemporary architecture. The article gives several reasons for this decline in popularity and proposes that the very words used to describe courtyards are partly to blame for the poor traction of this adorable feature. In the process of describing the many historical responses to courtyards, the article conducts a phenomenology of this remarkable 'void' in the middle of a building that has so much social presence.

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A model investigation of the acoustical performance of courtyard houses with respect to noise from road traffic

Cited by 13 publications

References 7 publications

Performance Evaluation of Balcony Designs for Mitigating Ground Level Noise

Performance Evaluation of Balcony Designs for Mitigating Ground Level Noise

Influence of Internal Courtyards on the Energy Load and Hours of Illuminance in Row Houses in Toronto

The Courtyard Inside and Out: a Brief History of an Architectural Ambiguity

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