Experimental study on use of sound absorption treatment for reduction of environmental sound propagation and reverberation in staircases: A case study in housing

In recent years, many open-plan houses have been proposed not only for comfort reasons, but also as a place to engage in family life. However, in contrast to the fact that this kind of plan makes it easy for people to interact, the daily life household sounds that occur inside the home may be perceived as noise. It is especially difficult to suppress the propagation of sound and reverberation in staircase and stairwell areas due to the absence of sound-absorbing furniture. In this study, we focused on addressing sound management within the staircase area in open-plan housing where sound absorption is particularly difficult. In order to suppress sound propagation on the upper and lower floors and the reverberation of sound, we placed a thin sound absorption panel on the wall, ceiling, and riser of the staircase. As a result, we were able to confirm that the propagation of sound on upper and lower floors can be suppressed by carrying out the sound absorption treatment on the staircase. Furthermore, we found that in stairway landing areas, the suppression effect of the propagation of sound varies depending on the position of the sound source and the positioning of the sound absorption panel, and that there is a position for placing the sound absorption panel where the sound-absorbing effect is effective. © 2017 by the authors.