Noise is a combination of uncomfortable and useless sounds of different frequencies and intensities, perceived by the human hearing organs and causing unpleasant subjective sensations. The nature of the noise depends on the source and can be mechanical, aerodynamic, electromagnetic, hydrodynamic.
Today, noise protection is very relevant: production is oversaturated with equipment, streets are crowded with vehicles, repairs and squabbles at neighbors are frequent.
And it harms the economy. So, people with mental work with a noise of 70 dB make twice as many mistakes than in silence. At the same time, working capacity decreases by about 60%, and among those engaged in physical labor - by 30%. Noises of increased intensity distort sound information and disrupt the auditory activity of a person, adversely affect nerves, contribute to the accumulation of fatigue and reduce performance. Under the influence of noise, circulatory disorders occur due to the narrowing of capillaries, blood pressure rises, and the body's resistance decreases.
SNiP "Protection from noise" obliges to provide measures for noise protection:
- at workplaces of enterprises;
- in the premises of public and residential buildings;
- in residential areas.
Noise is created by voices, household appliances, cars outside the window, working tools. Therefore, protection from noise is simply vital and determined, it is standardized by SNiP 23-02-2003, code of rules SP 51.13330.2001; as a section is in every project.
Today, to protect residential neighborhoods from city noise, walling and special engineering solutions are used. These can be acoustic screens along the railways and highways, and “building screens”, erected between the road and residential buildings. Good protection is the deepening of street routes and landscaping of slopes. Industrial enterprises carry out of the city, and some work (repair of roads and communications, construction) is prohibited at night.
The best protection against noise is massive walls and dense floors of your apartment, but it is difficult and inefficient. It is more reasonable to perform sound insulation of a porous material with a fibrous structure, especially at the joints of load-bearing structures. That is, sound insulation begins already with the design of the house.
A soundproofing layer should be laid on the floor under the tile, parquet or laminate, leading it to the walls. For additional sound insulation, a suspended acoustic ceiling is used. It absorbs noise and improves acoustics.
Double-glazed windows, preferably two-, three-chamber, will help to shield oneself from the street hum. Technological gaps at the joints of windows and walls, window sills must be sealed with sealant. Good noise protection - roller shutters with high soundproofing characteristics, glazed loggias and balconies. The threshold and vestibules of the front door must be sealed.
Some sounds are transmitted in the form of vibration along walls and ceilings. And this, as you know, is a very harmful factor affecting human health .
It is more difficult to deal with such shock noises. Partially, they can be neutralized with a filling pillow under the base of the floor, which dampens the vibration. Effectively silica Supersil coiled fiber (6 mm). If you protect them with joints of supporting structures, you can reduce the noise level by 27 dBA.
Protection against noise and vibration is carried out using modern sound-absorbing and vibration-insulating structures and materials. It is good that at home the effect of vibration is insignificant and most often short-term. But protection from vibration in the workplace is already a much more complex issue.