Medidor de pressão e dose sonora

Abstract

The study of sounds and the influence it exerts in humans has intensified in recent decades due to the large number of vehicles and industries in the centers of large cities. The equipment used to characterize the sound and compare if it is within the technical standards is the sound intensity meter or sound level meter. The standards allow marketed since equipment that only measure the sound pressure level to equipment that show pressure level spectrum in frequency and mean pressure to which an operator was exposed during the workday. In Brazil, most sound level meters marketed that measure the sound pressure, the others are usually imported. The present work aims to create a prototype of sound level meters capable of measuring the sound pressure, characterize the signal measured in the frequency and calculate the dose to which an individual is exposed. We developed a sonometer type 2 with slow, fast and impulsive response curves, with spectral analysis using frequency filters and octave band weighting curves A and C. The testing software developed and the response of the developed circuit were performed using the C weighting curve, which is almost linear and therefore best to check the frequency response of the electronic circuit designed. In tests of noise dose and sound pressure level was used weighting curve A. For tests using periodic waves the results obtained with the sound level meter using the response curves of slow, fast and impulsive showed similar results, as expected by IEC 651. The firmware had good resolution in frequency in testing and responded efficiently to fluctuations in the amplitude and frequency of the sound signal input. The bench tests were performed comparing the results of the prototype with a marketed sonometer and some measure of sounds presented high difference in their minimum and maximum values. This error is due to the background noise of the testing room, the microphone used and the errors inherent to the process of fast Fourier transform (FFT), such as spread spectrum due to the discontinuity at the beginning and end of the sampling window, number of samples of the window. The use of the decimation filter intensified errors around the frequency of 250Hz. The calculated noise dose meter reading was proportional to the increase in the intensity of the sound source, as recorded by the marketed dosimeter, but recording a value greater than expected.