Annoyance and noise from road traffic

The cause of insufficient privacy in open plan offices is identified as the reduction of background noise level resulting from the installation of highly absorbent ceilings intended to enhance the performance of portable acoustic screens. The V-form ceiling is suggested as a ceiling design which may increase both screen performance and background level. The extent to which these variables are affected by the use of such a design is investigated by using an acoustic scale model technique. The experimental approach used enables the measurement of attenuation curves for different ceiling configurations and allows the full appraisal of screen performance. It is concluded from the investigation that a V-form ceiling can contribute only marginally to increased privacy in open plan offices by decreasing the Articulation Index for speaker/listener situations by about 0·1.