A preliminary study on the measurement method for determining the absorption coefficient of sound barrier panels

Sound barrier walls are the most basic way to cope with noise problems in urban residential environments. The most important acoustic function of sound insulation board is represented by sound transmission loss and sound absorption coefficient. However, Korea has not yet established a standard for measuring the sound absorption rate of sound insulation boards. In addition, even in the European standard, where the overall acoustic standard of soundproofing boards has already been established, the sound absorption rate is applied only to the standard for measuring the sound absorption rate of general building finishing materials, and a separate measurement method considering the characteristics of soundproof walls and soundproofing boards is not presented. The sound absorption coefficient should be evaluated by summing up the energy absorbed into the material as well as the energy transmitted through the material, but the current European standard has a problem in that the transmitted sound energy is not taken into account. In this paper, we reviewed the sound absorption coefficient measurement standards of sound insulation boards currently being presented, and verified the difference between the results and the new measurement method considering transmission sound for sound insulation boards actually used in Korea.