National Physical Laboratory

Research

Listed below are the areas of Sound in Air research currently undertaken by NPL.

Sound in Air research

  • Technical Guides on Sound in Air, Ultrasonics and Underwater Acoustics.
  • NPL provides input to the working groups of international and national standards bodies and is aiding development of internationally standardised methods for testing DSP hearing aids.
  • A guide for all parties who commission, undertake or use environmental sound predictions for commercial or industrial operations, of whatever type or scale, for which an environmental noise assessment may be required.
  • NPL is pursuing the development of MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System)-based measurement microphones.
  • Secondary calibration of working standard microphones can offer the most direct and cost-effective traceability path for sound-in-air measurements.
  • Research work is currently being undertaken towards the development of a new optically-based primary standard for the free-field calibration of airborne measuring instruments based on photon correlation spectroscopy.
  • NPL provides primary measurement standards appropriate for the wide range of acoustical measurements in air. These standards support sound pressure measurements for manufacturing and product QA, health, safety and hearing conservation, environment noise measurement and monitoring, and many other applications.