Optimizing acoustic conditions for two lecture rooms in Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University

AbstractThis paper analyses the acoustic conditions inside two lecture rooms in faculty of agriculture, Cairo University, based on field measurements and simulation technique. Ambient noise and reverberation time were measured in the unoccupied rooms. The measurement results were utilized for validating the results of CATT software that was used to estimate occupied reverberation time, STI and C50. These parameters were analysed in comparison with rooms’ properties, optimal reverberation time and maximum acceptable noise for learning spaces. The results demonstrated that acoustic design of the first room is far from the recommended values, whereas the second room includes many defects. For optimizing the rooms’ performance, acoustic treatments were proposed and explored. Results clarified that reducing the excessive reverberation to the optimal value, either by increasing room absorption or decreasing room volume, significantly optimizes speech intelligibility. The results also clarified that reforming the ceiling eliminated the shadow and increased the early reflections