BB93 School Noise Assessment
Assessment and evaluation (using BB93 Standard) of noise problems caused by road traffic in classrooms.
Education in this primary school is dependent on good verbal communication, therefore good verbal communication between students and teacher must be undertaken in a good acoustical environmental. Different researches have confirmed that good quality acoustical environmental is the most important element of verbal communication. We know from experience that our acoustician's and by different studies that noise affecting the educational process is one of the most harmful effects within our schools. The location of the school under investigation was affected by strong road traffic noise. Road traffic noise was coming from the road close to the school building, where poor insulation materials was use, resulting high noise levels transmitted from the road to the inside of three of the five classes at this primary school. It was obvious that the noise levels inside these three classes were having an adverse effect in the normal communication and the most important affecting the teacher's ability to communicate clearly to the pupil within the classrooms.
The effects of road traffic noise were investigated by different noise monitoring outside and inside of the classrooms. The outdoor and indoor measurements were carried out in order to determinate if the road traffic noise levels were exceeding the acceptable levels of the relevant British Regulations (Building Bulletin 93, Acoustic Design of Schools). We also undertake a questionnaire survey to better understand the level of annoyance caused by the road traffic. After the road traffic noise monitoring and the questionnaire survey, we also undertake an investigation of the material used in the insulation of classrooms, the interior characteristics using reverberation time measurement and the speech transmission index. Our conclusion was that the acoustical environment of the three classrooms under study was under the required condition specified at BB93.
The noise levels outside and inside the classrooms were excessively high, which denoted that the building was poorly insulated against noise nuisance. The investigation of the reverberation time plus the speech transmission index showed results well below the acceptable standard. The combination of these factors creates an adverse factor on the normal learning process reducing the effectiveness of the normal education. SAC noise consultant team supplied a concise report on all the necessary steps that must be carried out to resolve this problem. The final work showed a noise levels according to the BB93 improving the quality of the educational process in the school.