Acoustic adequacy in a university restaurant

Study at RESUN – UFS

Abstract

In a restaurant environment, the lack of acoustic quality hinders verbal communication and privacy between tables. In this context, this research evaluated the acoustic performance of the university restaurant at Campus São Cristóvão - Universidade Federal de Sergipe (RESUN/UFS), to propose adaptation strategies. The methodology involved the steps of physical characterization of the study site (cafeteria areas), measurement of sound pressure levels, recording of impulsive responses, simulations and acoustic analysis of the current situation and after adaptation proposals. Acoustic performance was evaluated based on reverberation time and prediction of users' vocal effort. The results obtained point to the inadequacy of the existing acoustic conditions, considering references from the technical literature. Regarding vocal effort, it was found that, to achieve speech intelligibility, users would have to raise the sound level of their voice, which could cause exhausting verbal communication in the cafeteria area. It is noteworthy that the acoustic adaptation proposal adopted in this research showed promise in controlling reverberation in the search for local acoustic quality.