Doctor’s orders: CSIRO to help build Australia’s quietest hospital

A team of scientists from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) Melbourne acoustics lab are hoping to help make the new Royal Adelaide Hospital (RAH) the quietest hospital in Australia.

The new RAH, due to be completed in 2016, will have 800 beds and world-class facilities, including a helipad sitting atop its south west corner.

While the helipad will assist in patient transportation, it does present a major problem. From just 20 metres away, helicopters create over 100 decibels of noise – an environment certainly not conducive for patient rest.

To meet the stringent sound-proofing requirements set out by the South Australian government, the project team have decided to go beyond the single or thin double-glazed windows that usually suffice for domestic buildings.

“In this instance, triple glazing, very thick glass and very large gaps between the glass help provide acoustic insulation,” explains CSIRO project leader, Christopher Preston.

CSIRO has been working with façade manufacturer Yuanda, who was contracted by builder HYLC Joint Venture, to test the glazing that will be used for the hospital’s 70,000 square metres of external windows.

Within the CSIRO’s acoustic lab, one of the few Australian facilities equipped to perform the low frequency measurements for window assessments, a brick wall was custom-built between two cavernous sound chambers to hold the sample windows.

A standardised sound source generated noise in one chamber, while sound intensity and pressure levels were measured on the other side of the glass.

Testing Engineer David Truett in CSIRO’s acoustic laboratory.

According to Preston, these processes allow the CSIRO team to assess how well the glazing would perform when exposed to the noise of a helicopter.

"To ensure that all areas of the hospital meet the sound insulation requirements, a range of different window configurations had to be evaluated. This meant the brick wall had to be knocked down and rebuilt about a dozen times in order to hold different facade elements,” he says.

The results showed that Yuanda's glazing systems would effectively reduce the impact of helicopter noise on patients.

With the testing phase now complete, the glazing is ready for production.

“We haven’t been involved in a project like this previously,” says Preston.

“It’s been a very great engineering challenge to actually achieve the high performance that the South Australian government has requested, but in the end this will be Australia’s quietest hospital.”

Images: sourceable.net