Guide B4: Noise and vibration control for building services systems

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Guide B provides guidance on the practical design of heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems and is divided into six sections which are published separately:

B0: Applications and activities

B1: Heating

B2: Ventilation and ductwork

B3: Air conditioning and refrigeration

B4: Noise and vibration control for building services systems

Guide B Combined index

The full set is available at a discounted price here: Guide B (full set)

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Topics covered in Guide B4: Noise and vibration control for building services systems include:​

• Mechanisms of noise generation, noise sources and transmission paths
• Summary of noise and vibration problems from HVAC
  • Typical sources of hvac noise and their characteristics
  • Transmission paths
  • Control of the transmission paths
• Noise sources in building services
  • Fans
  • High velocity/high pressure terminal units
  • Grilles and diffusers
  • Fan coil units
  • Induction units
  • Air conditioning units
  • Fan-assisted terminal units
  • Rooftop units/air handling units
  • Acoustic louvres
  • Chillers and compressors
  • Pumps
  • Boilers
  • Heat rejection and cooling towers
  • Chilled ceilings
  • Lifts
  • Escalators
  • Electric motors
  • Noise from water flow systems
• Noise control in plant rooms
  • Risk of noise induced hearing loss
  • Breakout noise from plant rooms
  • Break-in noise in plant rooms
  • Estimation of noise levels in plant rooms
• Airflow noise – regeneration of noise in ducts
  • Flow rate guidance
  • Prediction techniques
  • Damper noise
  • Turbulence-induced noise in and from ductwork
• Control of noise transmission in ducts
  • Duct components
  • Unlined straight ducts
  • Lined straight ducts
  • Duct bends
  • Duct take-offs
  • End reflection loss
  • Passive attenuators and plenums
  • Active attenuators
  • Use of fibrous sound absorbing materials in ducts
  • Duct breakout noise
  • Duct break-in noise
  • Attenuator noise break-in
• Room sound levels
  • Behaviour of sound in rooms
  • Determination of sound level at a receiver point
  • Source directivity
  • Sound transmission between rooms
  • Privacy and cross talk
• Transmission of noise to and from the outside
  • Transmission of noise to the outside and to other rooms
  • Transmission of external noise to the inside
  • Naturally ventilated buildings
• Criteria for noise from building services systems
  • Objective
  • Choosing noise criteria parameters
  • Design criteria
  • Using dBA, dBC, NR and NC levels
• Noise prediction of sound pressure levels from building services
  • Room effect
  • System noise
  • Breakout/break-in noise
  • Noise propagation to outdoors
• Vibration problems and control
  • Fundamentals of vibration and vibration control
  • Rating equipment for vibration emission
  • Vibration isolation criteria
  • Common types of vibration isolator
  • Practical examples of vibration isolation
  • Noise in HVAC systems
  • Vibration in HVAC systems
• Appendices
  • Explanation of some basic acoustic concepts
  • Regeneration of noise by duct components and terminations
  • Interpreting manufacturers’ noise data
  • Noise instrumentation
  • Vibration instrumentation
  • Uncertainty in measurement and prediction of sound levels and sound power levels
  • Application of noise prediction software and integrated building design processes

Corrigendum (September 2016): makes corrections to Figure 4.63.

Acknowledgements:

Guide B4 Steering Committee: Bob Peters (Chair), Alan Fry Salex, Richard Galbraith, Peter Henson, Alex Krasnic, John Lloyd, John Shelton, Peter Tucker

Referees: Richard Cowell, Mark Saunders, Keith Shenstone