Article
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Preserved in Portico This version is not peer-reviewed
Performance Evaluation of Balcony Designs for Mitigating Ground Level Noise
Version 1
: Received: 25 December 2023 / Approved: 25 December 2023 / Online: 25 December 2023 (15:59:10 CET)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Tan, L.B.; Ang, L.Y.L. Performance Evaluation of Balcony Designs for Mitigating Ground Level Noise. Acoustics 2024, 6, 272-297. Tan, L.B.; Ang, L.Y.L. Performance Evaluation of Balcony Designs for Mitigating Ground Level Noise. Acoustics 2024, 6, 272-297.
Abstract
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 extensive FE studies involved about 10 million elements per analysis case. Results showed that a standard balcony with a front parapet wall could achieve a noise reduction of around 10 dBA, with the jagged ledge design providing an additional 2 dBA improvement. Adding protruded ledge designs led to higher insertion loss (IL) by up to 9.4 dBA, especially at higher stories. Having wall-embedded Helmholtz resonators improved IL by up to 1.5 dBA. The jagged ledge design consistently exhibited positive IL across a broad frequency range from 200 Hz to 2 kHz. Combining beneficial balcony ceilings and wall ledges significantly reduced noise across lower and higher frequency ranges. Front jagged and full wavy ceilings offered positive IL throughout different storeys, proving their effectiveness against human vocal range. This study found that jagged ledge and front jagged ceiling designs, effective across various balcony heights, are viable options for improving balcony noise mitigation, providing valuable insights for architects and designers seeking practical solutions for outdoor noise reduction.
Keywords
balcony design; noise mitigation; outdoor noise; Helmholtz resonator; jagged ledge
Subject
Engineering, Mechanical Engineering
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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