Relationship between sound insulation performance of walls and word intelligibility scores

Conversations must be shielded from people in an adjacent room if they include confidential information. Word intelligibility tests were performed in a total of 185 sound fields to examine the relationship between sound insulation performance and the degree of conversation leakage. The parameters of the test sound fields were background noise level in the adjacent room and the level difference between the two rooms. The background noise level was varied from 30 to 50 dB (A-weighted). The level difference was parametrically varied in terms of eight frequency characteristics and 10 absolute values. The results showed that word intelligibility scores were strongly correlated with the A-weighted speech-to-noise ratio and SNRuni32. Equal-intelligibility contours, which can easily show the weighted level difference and A-weighted background noise level required to achieve a certain level of word intelligibility scores, were obtained from a multiple logistic regression analysis.

► We compared word intelligibility scores with sound insulation performance. ► The test parameters were noise level and the level difference between the two rooms. ► The scores were correlated with the A-weighted speech-to-noise ratio and SNRuni32. ► Equal-intelligibility contours were obtained from a regression analysis. ► The contours show physical conditions to achieve a certain level of intelligibility.