BOOK REVIEW
By James K. Thompson, Ph D, PE, INCE Fellow, INCE Bd Cert, JKT Enterprises
Noise and Vibration Control, Second Edition (2024)
M. L. Munjal and B Venkatesham
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., (2024), 440 pp., Hardbound, 138 USD, ISBN 9811283141
Purpose:
This book is intended to serve as a textbook for a course in noise and vibration control. The author notes that it is drawn primarily from his experience and notes in teaching such a course. It includes both example problems and a set of problems at the end of each chapter.
Chapter 1: Introduction to Acoustics
In 40 pages, the text provides an overview of basic acoustics and noise. There is not much detail, but the concepts of sound pressure and sound power are discussed. It seemed a little odd to see the authors using SPL and SWL for sound pressure and sound power levels. In other places more accepted terms like Lw and Lp are used. There is also some discussion of frequency and sound quality.
Chapter 2: Acoustic Measurements
This is one of the chapters added for the second edition. This presentation covers the basics of sound level meters and microphones. The basic concepts are described without great technical depth on the physics behind them. The methods behind sound power measurement and sound intensity are described with some examples. The concepts of source localization are described with information provided to the reader about the existence of acoustic cameras and similar devices.
Chapter 3: Vibration and Its Measurement
In 30 pages the treatment of this topic is mostly concepts with only 9 pages focused on measurements. There is not enough depth to provide a foundation for understanding vibration in other than a conceptual manner.
Chapter 4: Vibration Control
This chapter introduces the concepts of isolators, blocking masses, constrained layer damping, and active control. For all these topics the treatment is terse with only the basic concepts presented.
Chapter 5: Sound Transmission Through Multiple Media
This chapter introduces the concepts of sound absorption and transmission loss. The authors go through single-layer and multiple-layer treatments in sufficient detail for a student to understand the concepts. The final segment describes the measurement of absorption coefficients and transmission loss.
Chapter 6: Acoustics of Rooms, Partitions, Enclosures, and Barriers
Several topics are covered in this 33-page chapter. The basics of room acoustics, reverberation, and reverberation time are presented with some tables of common material performance. There is a discussion of the building of sound enclosures and the performance of barriers.
Chapter 7: Mufflers and Silencers
This is one of the most detailed chapters of the text. Numerous silencer designs are shown and the concept behind expansion chambers, absorptive ducts, and combinations are described. Helmholt resonators and active control are also included in the discussion of silencer design. This chapter could serve as a practical introduction to silencers and their design.
Chapter 8: Noise Control Strategies
This chapter reinforces the concept of breaking noise control problems into the source, path, and receiver. There are brief discussions of compressor and fin noise control. There are more detailed segments on the control of pump noise and diesel engines. There are several other brief discussions of other industrial and transportation noise control concepts.
Chapter 9: Computational Acoustics
The last 57 pages are devoted to the methods of computational acoustics. This chapter provides an overview of Statistical Energy Analysis, Finite Element Analysis, the Boundary Element Methods, and aeroacoustics. In each case the basic concepts are introduced with, where appropriate, the governing equations.
Summary
This textbook provides a summary of noise and vibration control. It begins with the basic concepts of acoustics and proceeds through noise control principles and practical applications. Because of the breadth of coverage, there is not great depth, but a good overview is provided with many illustrations and references for more in-depth study. This is a second edition with three chapters added covering measurements, transmission through media, and computational acoustics.
This textbook is a high-level treatment of a lot of topics in noise control engineering. However, I found myself concerned that there was not enough explanation or foundation laid for some of the concepts being presented. In other sections, such as Chapter 6, the book provided practical examples and even data for building materials. This treatment seemed uneven with high-level explanations of methods without a discussion of applications in some chapters, and then in other sections there were details on noise control solutions with drawings and material tables.
This textbook could be used as part of a senior or early graduate-level course. However, there would need to be a lot of supplementary support in terms of explanations and examples of usage of the concepts in noise control.
