Sound level meter aid ships noise projects

All ship-owners have to meet these regulations for vessels with a gross tonnage of 1,600 and over.

In April 2011, Tokai University’s Professor Shuri started working with Brüel & Kjær on a project for the cooperative association of Japanese shipbuilders. Professor Shuri said: “The aim of this project was to develop noise prediction programs for shipbuilding engineers. Our second project, which started in March 2015, is about developing noise control technology to effectively reduce noise levels in cabins.”

These projects – both completed in April this year - aimed to obtain a lot of accurate noise and vibration data during sea trials and to measure many acoustic properties, such as transmission loss of a cabin construction and the absorption coefficient of cabins.

“This data is necessary for the development of noise prediction programs and to verify noise control measures,” said Professor Shuri. “Shipbuilding engineers have measured noise and vibration data and acoustic properties on more than 30 ships using a Type 2250 Sound Level Meter and have used the building acoustics measurement system. We have obtained a lot of data, relying on technical support from the engineers at Brüel & Kjær Japan,” explains Professor Shuri.

“The Brüel & Kjær Type 2250 is popular among ship manufacturers as it measures both noise and vibration acceleration levels and this is very useful in order to investigate noise control measures,” explains Professor Shuri. “The Type 2250 with the building acoustics module can also carry out transmission loss measurements of a cabin construction and provide the absorption coefficient measurements in a cabin, which are necessary measurements when investigating noise control.”