Air treatment and air conditioning - Acoustic and physico-chemical aspects

Air is a good sound propagator. In air conditioning, however, air is extracted and then blown back into the room being treated. Between extraction and blowing, it has passed through noise-generating elements. It will therefore carry this noise. If attenuation is not provided in the right place, this can lead to significant discomfort in the room to be heat-treated, and even outside the room or building. Acoustics must therefore be taken into account right from the design stage.

A brief introduction to acoustics is followed by a list of possible sources of noise. This first paragraph concludes with advice and solutions for the various acoustic treatments possible in air conditioning.

In some cases, the plant requires special air treatment (physico-chemical treatment). At the beginning of this second paragraph, ionization and ultraviolet radiation treatments are briefly described, as they are tending to disappear in favor of improved filtration. Chemical drying, the subject of the second part of this paragraph, can replace dehumidification by cooling. This principle is used when the desired absolute humidity in the room is very low. The principle and controls are described below.

This document is part of a set of four articles on air handling:

[BE 9 270] Air treatment and air conditioning. General

[BE 9 271] Air treatment and air conditioning. Components and their functions

[BE 9 272] Air treatment and air conditioning. Thermal and mechanical aspects

Air treatment and air conditioning. Acoustic and physico-chemical aspects

supplemented by a documentation booklet

Air treatment and air conditioning. For further information