TUESDAY MORNING, 24 MAY 2016 SALON E, 8:00 A.M. TO 11:05 A.M. Session 2aAAa Architectural Acoustics and Noise: Forensic Studies from Noise Identification to Solutions in the Built Environment Kenneth Cunefare, Cochair Georgia Tech, Mechanical Engineering, Atlanta, GA 30332-0405 Kenric D. Van Wyk, Cochair Acoustics By Design, Inc., 124 Fulton Street East, Second Floor, Grand Rapids, MI 49503 Chair’s Introduction—8:00 Invited Papers 2a TUE. AM 8:05 2aAAa1. What’s that sound? Probe tones and poltergeists: Two case studies in diagnosing noise sources. Kenneth A. Cunefare (Georgia Tech/Arpeggio Acoust. Consulting, Mech. Eng., Atlanta, GA 30332-0405,
[email protected]) Case #1: Following construction of a new hospital building within a larger campus, residents began to complain about droning noises in the surrounding neighborhood. Blame was laid on HVAC chillers and an MRI chiller installed on exposed roof-tops of the building. However, there were numerous other chillers on buildings on the campus that were not blamed; a test using probe tones eliminated the hos- pital building as the source impacting the community. Case #2: A homeowner complained of intermittent groaning and moaning noises in the home (poltergeist-like). Interviews revealed that the noises occurred essentially randomly; while the homeowner correlated occurrences to whether or not it had recently rained, the correlation was weak. Additionally, the homeowner had found that opening a water tap would cause the sound to fade away; this was suggestive, but since the sound faded away in a short time even without opening the valve, it was not definitive.