An Assessment of Indoor Acoustic Condition in Students Hostels within Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that objective assessment for building acoustic conditions only may not always be representative of the users’ perception in occupied indoor spaces. This study objectively and subjectively examined indoor acoustic condition in rooms within students’ hostels in Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria. The objective assessment considered the physical measurement of sound pressure level in the rooms in relation to the rooms’ physical characteristics like window to external wall area and window to floor area ratios. The subjective assessment considered the occupants’ perception of the acoustic condition in the rooms in relation to their personal characteristics like age, gender, body mass index, metabolic rate, and body skin area. The sound pressure level was measured in each of the randomly selected 44 rooms at 15 minute intervals between 7 hours and 19 hours daily through a period of eight weeks. The measurement was done with High Accuracy Digital Sound Noise Level Data Loggers placed at work plane at the centre of the rooms. The geometry of the rooms was documented through physical measurements. All the occupants of the selected rooms as well as the two adjoining rooms, amounting to 696 respondents, were purposively selected to fill a questionnaire regarding activities carried out in the rooms, the frequency of fenestration opening, the personal characteristics of the occupants and the rooms’ occupancy ratio. This study established a strong correlation between the objective and subjective assessments of the acoustic condition in the spaces. Moreover, out of all the occupants’ personal characteristics considered, it was the age that has a relationship with the occupants’ perception of the acoustic condition that is closest to significant level.The relationship between their perception and measured sound pressure level was slightly more pronounced among the male gender than the female with correlation coefficients of 0.115 and 0.096 respectively. This study concluded that none of the considered occupants’ personal characteristics can effectively predict their response to indoor acoustic condition in the spaces.