Absorbent materials for classrooms reverberation control in classrooms of San Miguel de Tucumán. Parameters determination and comparison

Abstract

This work aims at making proposals of architectural materials for the improvement of reverberation times (RT) in classrooms through a software. The specific objectives were to determine those sustainable and non-sustainable materials that could be used in classrooms for the optimization of the RT in schools. In this work, a methodological combination was used for carrying out different activities and obtaining results. In a first stage, the case study method was used to analyze the acoustics problematic of a school in San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán, Argentina. It is a special case because it belongs to the "program of 700 schools", at the national level. Also, we used the exploratory method for studying materials with possibility of including them to improve the acoustic conditions of classrooms. The descriptive method was also used to understand the totality of the buildings, their spaces and different characteristics. These methods involve tools and specific techniques and those that we use particularly to address and develop the subject matter should be mentioned: a) the RT is determined through the ArchRTCalculator software developed by the team according to the mathematical formula of Sabine. Starting from the evaluation of 4 alternatives of absorbent materials in a particular classroom, a comparison was made to determine which would be the most appropriate for this purpose and that could also be used.