Laboratory test method to determine noise from wastewater installation

Abstract

We are working on a project which aims at improving sewage pipe material and piping system to reduce the radiated noise. One challenge we faced initially was to identify a suitable experimental method that fulfilled following requirements: allows for testing of the complete system and single components, fits our standard laboratory, suitable for measuring both airborne and structure-borne noise, reliable and cost effective. EN 14366 describes a laboratory measurement procedure to determine noise from wastewater installations. This method requires a setup comprising of two rooms: a source room to determine the airborne sound and a receiving room to indirectly determine the s1ructw'e-bome sound by measuring the sound pressure level. .As the test method was designed to compare pipe systems, the system layout is strictly defined, and the setup is not well suited to investigate system components or selected system sections for R&D purposes. The requirements on the laboratory facility are extensive and test of single components is not foreseen in the standard. In this paper we briefly present findings from a literature survey on the measurements of noise from wastewater installations. Moreover, we present an alternative setup and test method that we designed for our purposes. This setup allows the investigation of vertical and horizonal pipes or even just single components (e.g., bends). We will present sample results and are looking forward to an active discussion of pros and cons.