Courtyard acoustics

The acoustic environment of courtyard housing has been studied and the ability of the courtyard to attenuate external noise examined. A scale-model was used to study the effect of the ground treatment, the source and the receiver locations, the depth of the courtyard and the position and arrangement of openings in the walls.Experimental results obtained from the model, together with a simple procedure for predicting the sound pressure levels inside the courtyard, are presented.