Mathematical & Computational Investigation

Session 10 Paper 4, CIBSE ASHRAE Technical Symposium, Imperial College, London, UK
18th and 19th April 2012

There is increased scientific interest worldwide during the last decade for the energy efficient design of buildings and their services which is a function of the thermal properties of the construction materials. Taking into account that construction materials also possess acoustic qualities, the current study investigates the possible correlation between the acoustic and thermal behaviour of a space.

The starting point was the observation that there are common elements of a building’s construction, that influence simultaneously the values of characteristic parameters of the thermal and acoustic performance of every individual surface of a space, namely the reverberation time RT(sec) and the U-Value (W/ m2K).

The research team, completed a mathematical research of the phenomenon, which concluded that there is actually a correlation between the two investigated values and lead to the introduction of a new mathematical model. Finally the validity of the proposed model was tested and a further research based on two of its basic parameters was completed.