• Journal of Korean Association for Spatial Structures
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.75-82
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• 2007

The present work measured and analyzed changes in the acoustics of a sound field which has a retractable ceiling. An 1/20 scale model of an openable space was built and measurement was carried out by varying the opened area of a ceiling. The most widely used room acoustic and design parameters, RT, EDT, and D50 were investigated. The results suggest that the use of RT as an acoustic design parameter may not be proper in an openable space and further it is likely to mislead the initial acoustic design of such spaces. It is mainly due to the characteristics of RT in which non-exponential decay processes are linearly fitted. Early decay times were found to be decreased in proportion to increaing the ratio of opened area. D50, an index of speech intelligibility, was effectively shows the influence of openings on the acoustics. It is also found that EDT and D50 at the seats, not directly exposed to the opened part of a ceiling, were almost linearly decreased in proportion to the ratio of opened area, while little influence was found for the opening ratio larger than 40% at the directly exposed seats to the opened part of a ceiling.