SUMMARY

With increased exposure to transportation noise, there have been continued efforts to help insulate homes from aircraft noise. Current aircraft noise guidelines are based primarily on outdoor sound levels. As people spend the majority of their time indoors, however, human perception is evidently more related to indoor sound levels. Investigations are being made to provide further insight into how typical residential constructions affect indoor response. A pilot study has built a single-room “test house”, according to typical construction for mixed-humid climate regions, and has directly measured outdoor-to-indoor transmission of sound—with specific focus on continuous commercial aircraft signatures. The results of this study are being used to validate and improve modelling software that simulates a wide range of construction types and configurations for other US climate regions. The improved models will allow for increased flexibility in simulating the impacts of acoustic and energy retrofits. Overall, the project intends to improve the ability to predict acoustic performance for typical US construction types as well as for any possible design alterations for sound insulation.