The effect of construction material, contents and room geometry on the sound field in dwellings at low frequencies

An experimentally validated finite element method is used to model the sound level in rooms at low frequencies. It is demonstrated that the dimensions of rectangular rooms strongly influence the sound pressure level difference. Additional factors were investigated which are not normally considered in the frequency range where diffuse sound field conditions can be assumed. Three effects were investigated: room damping due to wall vibrations, furniture, the effect of small deviations from simple rectangular shapes. It is confirmed by field measurements that the vibrations of masonry walls and floors introduce less damping than surfaces of lightweight construction. Assigning to the FE model a damping equivalent to a surface absorption of 0.02 reproduces the effect of walls of heavyweight construction. Damping equivalent to a surface absorption of 0.15 reproduces the effects of plastered timber-frame walls, floors and ceilings. The work was briefly extended to a room pair built with heavyweight and lightweight material of construction. The modification of the shape of the room frequency response highlights well the effect of material of construction. In-situ and laboratory measurements show that furniture has little effect on steady-state room response below 100 Hz. Modelling a wall recess smaller than 0.5 m improved the agreement between prediction and measurements but the assumption of a simple rectangular room remains appropriate.     

Magnetisation reversal in media with perpendicular anisotropy

In this paper, we discuss two key aspects of magnetisation reversal in magnetic thin films with perpendicular anisotropy. Firstly, a study has been made of the additional field required to erase data written perpendicular to a thin film recording disk as the linear data density is increased. It has been found that an increase in data density from 40 to 360 kfci results in an increase of 1.25 kOe in the field required to erase the data. Secondly, the effect of varying the level of exchange coupling by co-sputtering CoCrPt samples with SiO₂ has been studied using a characterisation technique that is independent of the self-demagnetising field. It has been found that the samples are fully exchange de-coupled when the film contains >9.8% SiO₂ and the activation volume of reversal remains constant for higher levels of SiO₂.     

Principle of event symmetry

To accommodate topology change, the symmetry of space-time must be extended from the diffeomorphism group of a manifold to the symmetric group acting on the discrete set of space-time events. This is the principle ofevent-symmetric space-time. I investigate a number of physical toy models with this symmetry to gain some insight into the likely nature of event-symmetric space-time. In the more advanced models the symmetric group is embedded into larger structures such as matrix groups which provide scope to unify space-time symmetry with the internal gauge symmetries of particle physics. I also suggest that the symmetric group of space-time could be related to the symmetric group acting to exchange identical particles, implying a unification of space-time and matter. I end with a definition of a new type of loop symmetry which is important in event-symmetric superstring theory.