Heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems represent one of the main noise sources inside classrooms. This explain why HVAC systems require careful design, competent installation and balancing, and regular maintenance. Many... more
Heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems represent one of the main noise sources inside classrooms. This explain why HVAC systems require careful design, competent installation and balancing, and regular maintenance. Many factors influence the classroom acoustical design, such as air handlers or fans, the velocity of air inside the classroom, as well as the size and acoustical treatment of ducts, returns, and diffusers. Acoustic parameters, including background-noise levels, reverberation time, and intelligibility, were analyzed in 17 classrooms at the Università Politecnica in the Marche region. The study of intelligibility was performed by measuring the objective parameters in situ and using prediction methods to determine the intelligibility score. The relationship between speech intelligibility measurements and speech intelligibility calculation has been studied. The relationship between the STI values with the background-noise levels and the reverberation time wa...
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According to Italian regulation, the Ministerial Decree of 11 October 2017 about Environmental Criteria, reference values for acoustic indoor quality descriptors in public buildings are imposed. Regarding school environments, indoor... more
According to Italian regulation, the Ministerial Decree of 11 October 2017 about Environmental Criteria, reference values for acoustic indoor quality descriptors in public buildings are imposed. Regarding school environments, indoor acoustic quality targets refer to reverberation time, clarity, and speech intelligibility, whose representative acoustic descriptor is the speech transmission index (STI). This paper presents pyeSTImate, a Python-based tool for speech transmission index prediction in lecture rooms. The tool returns fully simulated results from the dimensions and material characteristics of classrooms with parallelepiped geometry and without limitations in size. Extensive experiments have been conducted with different simulation methods, evaluating the accuracy by comparison with in situ measurements selected from primary, secondary, and university classrooms in school buildings of the Marche Region in Italy. The combination of simulated speech transmission indexes with a...
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To ensure adequate management of the soundscape in urban environments, urban planning authorities need a range of tools that enable them to perform this condition. Analyzing and classifying a soundscape is necessary to adapt it to the... more
To ensure adequate management of the soundscape in urban environments, urban planning authorities need a range of tools that enable them to perform this condition. Analyzing and classifying a soundscape is necessary to adapt it to the expectations of the people who inhabit it. The term Soundscape is associated with three different research areas: ecology / anthropology, music / sound design and architecture / urbanism. In particular, in this paper, the third research area will be investigated, finding a correlation model between auditory and visual sensations of the urban landscape of the port of Ancona. The classification model that is used is the Support Vector Machines SVM which is proposed as a tool for a global assessment of the urban sound landscape. In this case study the algorithm is intended for the automatic classification of the sound landscape of the port of Ancona to understand how much the sound perception affects the visual one. The main results obtained are illustrat...
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The paper is focused on exposure to vibration during the olive harvest for farmers of Azienda Agraria of Universita Politecnica of Marche to highlight the importance of the exposure to vibrations transmitted to the hand-arm system in... more
The paper is focused on exposure to vibration during the olive harvest for farmers of Azienda Agraria of Universita Politecnica of Marche to highlight the importance of the exposure to vibrations transmitted to the hand-arm system in agriculture and its consequences on human health. To assess the exposure to mechanical vibration transmitted to operators during the olive harvest, measurements were done using a vibration measuring equipment during the regular working activity. The vibration samplings were carried out on electric and pneumatic harvesters. The measured data were compared with the prevention values for the safety requirements fixed by the normative. The analysis of the results shows that the electric harvesters transmit vibrations equivalent and in some cases higher than ones provided by the pneumatic harvesters. The paper, evaluating the risk to the hand-arm system due to vibrations, give an overview of the exposure of workers to the risks arising from vibrations to whi...
Research Interests: Engineering and Vibration
The review of trends in farm practices and machinery development suggests that noise problems are still prevalent in agricultural situations. The aim of this study is to assess the noise exposure for workers during olive harvest in... more
The review of trends in farm practices and machinery development suggests that noise problems are still prevalent in agricultural situations. The aim of this study is to assess the noise exposure for workers during olive harvest in Azienda Agraria Didattico-Sperimentale of Universita Politecnica delle Marche. A monitoring of noise levels is conducted in some days of the years 2010-2011. Noise samplings were carried out on electric and pneumatic harvesters. For sound pressure levels measurements an integrating-averaging sound-level meter, B&K2250 type, was used and the measurement procedure was set up in accordance with ISO 9612:2011. The tests have been carried out during the regular working activity with all the shakers operated by the same worker expert in the use of this machines. The results allowed to evaluate noise exposure during the olive harvest. Every machine has been analyzed to establish the level of noise produced according to the laws in force. With the collected data ...
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The study and analysis of the processes that determine environmental sustainability of buildings are nowadays topics of great interest for the sustainable, economic and social development of the cities. The international context presents... more
The study and analysis of the processes that determine environmental sustainability of buildings are nowadays topics of great interest for the sustainable, economic and social development of the cities. The international context presents guidelines and protocols for the energy-environmental sustainability, often aimed to assigning a sustainability label to the buildings. In Italy one of the most used rating systems is the ITACA Protocol, recently updated by the Italian Standard UNI/Pdr 2019, which through a series of criteria identifies global indicators of the sustainability of the building examined. This paper presents the potential of the ITACA protocol which could be a method for designing innovative and efficient architectures. In particular, the aspects related to the acoustic comfort are examined and how these criteria change the overall performance of a building. The evaluation of the sustainability performance was applied to a school building. Results show that an optimal a...
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Today, the art of knowing how to listen is more urgent than ever. The perceptive sound system of the human being is stimulated daily by countless artificial sounds that dominate natural ones. When it comes to the idea of the soundscape,... more
Today, the art of knowing how to listen is more urgent than ever. The perceptive sound system of the human being is stimulated daily by countless artificial sounds that dominate natural ones. When it comes to the idea of the soundscape, the terminology was initially referred to by composer and environmentalist Raymond Murray Shafer, who defined “soundscape” as a relationship between the ear, humans, built environments, and society. This paper aims to apply the sound landscape approach in the seaport area of Ancona (Italy); a large area, frequented daily by many people, which is divided into passenger and ferry terminals, container terminals, plants for solid bulk, and commercial and recreational activities. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the perception that a human has of the urban layout of the port area by correlating the parameters of traditional acoustics with psychoacoustics. To evaluate the subjective parameters, a questionnaire was developed and applied, enabling th...
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This paper concerns the development and experimental validation of a simplified method to evaluate the performances of materials for floating floors. The method is based on the reception plate theory. The porpouse is to evaluate the... more
This paper concerns the development and experimental validation of a simplified method to evaluate the performances of materials for floating floors. The method is based on the reception plate theory. The porpouse is to evaluate the impact sound pressure level reduction ΔL by the differences of the sound power level ΔP measured on the reception plate with and without the acoustic material. The results are compared with the values measured in accordance with ISO 10140 standards.
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L’energia eolica e oggi una delle fonti energetiche in piu rapido sviluppo ma il rumore prodotto dalle turbine eoliche rappresenta uno dei maggiori ostacoli alla sua accettazione sul territorio. L’industria dell’eolico ha sviluppato... more
L’energia eolica e oggi una delle fonti energetiche in piu rapido sviluppo ma il rumore prodotto dalle turbine eoliche rappresenta uno dei maggiori ostacoli alla sua accettazione sul territorio. L’industria dell’eolico ha sviluppato soluzioni tecnologiche che rendono le turbine attuali meno rumorose, nonostante cio il rumore prodotto e il prevedibile impatto sono criteri fondamentali per la localizzazione dei parchi eolici. Il presente lavoro passa in rassegna alcune soluzioni per ottenere riduzioni della rumorosita delle turbine dopo aver affrontato il problema di una valutazione previsionale dell’impatto acustico piu rispondente a quella che sara la situazione reale ad opera realizzata. ------ Wind power is nowadays one of the fastest growing energy sources but turbine noise is one of the major hindrances for the acceptance by the territories interested to the wind farms location. The industry has developed technological solutions that improve the efficiency and reduce the noise e...