Proposal of a Simplified Tool for Early Acoustics Design Stage of Classrooms in Compliance with Speech Intelligibility Thresholds

Paolo Croce (), Francesco Leccese, Giacomo Salvadori and Umberto Berardi
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Paolo Croce: Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Francesco Leccese: Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Giacomo Salvadori: Department of Energy, Systems, Territory and Construction Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Umberto Berardi: Department of Architectural Science, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 2, 1-11

Abstract: The speech intelligibility properties of classrooms greatly influence the learning process of students. Proper acoustics can promote the inclusion of foreign students and children with learning or hearing impairments. While awareness of the topic is increasing, there is still no parameter that can describe all aspects of speech transmission inside a room. This complicates the design of classrooms and requires designers to have extensive knowledge of theory and experience. In the scientific and technical literature, there is a lack of predictive tools, easy to use by designers, which can guide the choices in the early design stages in order to move towards technical solutions able to ensure adequate levels of speech intelligibility. For this reason, in this paper, the most relevant speech intelligibility parameters found in the literature were collected and discussed. Among these, the Clarity index and Speech Transmission Index were singled out as the most effective ones, whose prediction can be made with relatively simple methods. They were then analyzed through their prediction formulas, and a tool was proposed to allow an easy estimation of the minimum total equivalent sound absorption area needed in a classroom. This tool greatly simplifies the early acoustics design stage, allowing the intelligibility of speech within a classroom to be increased without requiring much theoretical effort on the part of the designers.

Keywords: room acoustics; classroom acoustics; students learning; speech intelligibility; clarity index; prediction diagram (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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