These Bricks Can Absorb Traffic Noise - Thesis Presentation on Helmholtz Resonators
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- Опубликовано: 17 май 2024
- I gave a talk on my Masters Thesis Project in Architecture focusing on Altering Soundscapes in Exterior Environments using Helmholtz Resonators in Ceramic Bricks to absorb Low Frequency Traffic Noise.
I recently graduated from @BartlettArchUCL at University College London and was invited to give a talk on my project for the Portland Digital Fabrication Club in Portland.
Here is a link to my Portfolio on the Creation of Helmholtz Resonator Bricks:
drive.google.com/file/d/11r86...
Here is a link to my Thesis Paper on Helmholtz Resonator Absorber Bricks:
docs.google.com/document/d/e/...
And here is the free file if you want to download it and print on your home machine (good luck with the overhangs and support):
www.thingiverse.com/thing:638...
0:00 Introduction
0:13 About the presenter
1:00 University College London
3:00 Traffic Noise Levels in London
3:20 Problem Statement
4:40 Focus on Transportation
5:29 Limited Solutions
6:02 Soundscape
6:47 Acoustics in Architecture
8:31 Helmholtz Resonator
9:47 Recent Helmholtz Resonators
10:25 Elizabeth Line & Paddington Station
10:56 Traffic Bricks
11:34 Sound Absorption Tests
12:56 Acoustic Measurement
13:33 The Site
14:27 Research Question
15:16 Multiple Research Stream
16:08 3D Printing Bricks
17:15 Grasshopper "Hairy Bricks"
17:35 Slip Casting
18:08 Prototypes 1-3
18:55 Fusion 360 Brick
19:12 Prototype 1
20:27 Prototype 2
21:35 Prototype 3
24:09 Fusion 360 Generative Design
24:58 Robotic Arm Manipulation
25:24 Four Part Brick
26:06 Prototype 4
27:20 Final Prototype
29:15 Testing Size
29:49 Assembly
30:34 Testing Absorption
31:40 Future Work
32:44 Alternative Methods
![Jason Aldean - Should've Been A Cowboy [Toby Keith Tribute] (Live from the 59th ACM Awards)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/-B4nR-CgMVA/mqdefault.jpg)
Feel free to download the brick file for free (linked in the description) as well as my thesis and portfolio 🤩
Being .limited to ceramics is a challenge.
How about just glass. Like how wine bottles are made. You can make different sizes of openings, etc. the rest of bottles…interior of wall,…can be all the same and interlocking. Think like a sturdy glass brick wall but with a purpose. Can use recycle glass. So many colors to choose from.
Very interesting presentation. Thank you for sharing. If face to face I would have many questions for sure. Congratulations
Hey Joe, going back to the idea about holes basically drilled into the side of cinder blocks, what is the relationship between the diameter of the opening and the frequency of sound absorbed?
Bird nest?
You have the digital file? Cool
Hi, wonderful shape achieved! Cheers.
I suggest you to improve the brick changing its composition into a more porous material like geopolymer foam.
I suggest you to do a research on Geopolymer Institute in France by Joseph Davidovits and contact them, they patent lots of concrete mixes for concrete 3d printing tech, nad i'm sure they'll help you.
Great job!
10 years from now: Revolutionary traffic absorbing bricks cause massive spider population boom because they are perfect nesting places
Love it!
spraying some lemon grass will prevent it?
I was thinking wasps.
@@JoeMakesI thought it might be difficult to keep rats from moving in
You'd have a million critters living in them, from insects to birds. I leave piles of broken terracotta laying in places to be put into the bin and recycled... Leave them for a few days and snails, roly-polies, ants find it, germinating seeds, water collects and birds frequent the pile.
This is litterally the first time that I've heard anyone who isn't from the UK speak positively about it for an extended period
I edited out the hour long rant in the beginning 😂
im sure the old UK was amazing... lately, i will pass.
I've never heard anyone from the UK talk positively about it.😂😂
Makes you wonder why millions want to go there?
@@stephennewberry9815weird comment, uk is nice
Great effort. The final statement about acoustics being an afterthought in so many architecture projects is so very true. I took an acoustics course as part of my curriculum and we went through multiple case studies involving large projects that had to be acoustically fixed after the fact. Incredible how humans tend to regularly ignore things that are not visible but heavily impact our well-being.
Thanks so much! And Completely! Is it because visual somehow supersedes audio? It's very interesting. You might like my thesis in the description. I try and cover that idea. Keep up the good work 💪
Humans tend to overlook things they can't see. We are a very optically focused species after all.
I attended a presentation from Chris Downey, an architect who became blind after he was established in his career. It was very interesting to learn about this problem from his perspective, and what he's been able to do, since he experiences architecture with audio first and without the visual.
@@JoeMakesI suspect it's that it's the visuals that sell a design and the way that visuals change are far more representable than the audioscape
I couldn’t agree more. In my engineering dealing with production problems in manufacturing. The problems that troubled us for the longest time, no matter how painful or serious they might be were the ones that could not be visually observed. Either the mechanism occurred faster than the eye can see or the issue, was a heat problem affecting a temperature sensitive coating, or internals of a complex hydraulic device
Dude, a wall like yours, and lots of plants growing and crawling on it will definitely be the best barrier to stop traffic noise from a highway. The way to go.
Thanks! Glad you dug it
When you pointed out that birds making nests inside the resonators would help their efficiency I was sold. Good work, HD first class honors!
Thanks! Seems that you are one of the few that watched until the end 😂
Yeah typically people try to get birds out of similar urban spaces like laundry room vents so this could be good.
During non nesting times the nests could periodically be blown out with pressure washers if necessary. Me I'd prefer to have the birds there. I hope that the wall is built and studied and tested so that it eventually becomes a viable building option for specific locations.
How does filling the cavities with mud help the effectiveness? Or are you assuming that all birds just use dry materials if some similar density?
More importantly, did you test this with various bird species in a real environment yet? I’m skeptical
I watched it all, the habitat point is great.
Big brick energy here in Australia
😂 Best comment
Golden!
Yeah, they're probably the most venomous bricks in the world, too.
One brick could kill a grown horse@@Deipnosophist_the_Gastronomer
@@JoeMakes True. You just have to know how to throw it right.
An amazing presentation. I'm a former country boy that loves living in cities, it was eye opening for me discovering that cities aren't loud and dirty, it's cars and roads. The unintended consequences of adding a couple of Ford Model T's way back in the 1900's, when used at scale, have been detrimental to the quality of life for city residents. We've accidentally built or way into a corner, and it's thoughtful projects like this can help get us back out.
Glad you enjoyed it!
You have missed some of the point. It's not only traffic that makes things loud and dirty. People, and bad acoustics do that, too. Have you never sat in a restaurant where it was almost impossibly loud and difficult to hear your conversations? That wasn't due to traffic.
It's a brilliant study, though, Joe. Unwanted noise has long been neglected. I wish you luck.
@@dandare1001lol no I think YOU missed (or were ignorant of) fly8659's point . We're commenting on a video about heimholz resonators nobody is talking about the inside of taverns
Between the advents of pavement (back then cobblestones and brick) and the automobile high traffic streets could be quite loud with all the clip-clopping of horse, donkey, and oxen hooves and the noise of steel wagon treads against the pavement.
It was much worse before cars. Horseshit. Every day, all day, horseshit. Tons of it fresh every day.
Being a hobby pottery student and do quite a bit of experimentation myself clay has a memory, and it also has shapes that go against its nature. 90 deg. angles will always crack/break/fail in some way. Organic shapes are always best, and it doesn't surprise me that you had so much problem until you switched up the shape of the bricks you made. the shape you came up with is very unique and quite appealing. very well done!
Thanks so much! Took awhile to accept what the material was trying to say, but now appreciate and understand a little more for the next version. 👍
Please don't bring esoteric woo into this. Clay doesn't have a "memory", "nature", nor is it trying to "say" anything. This kind of speech is unscientific.
@@apokalypthoapokalypsys9573: Lighten up, Francis! There's room for metaphor and poetry in science. "Water seeks its own level" is both scientific and colorful. This is a similar meaning to "Clay has a memory." Oculus is right about the 90 degree angles. The nature of clay is intertwined with gravity, and organic shapes are often both artistically and structurally superior. Also, Oculus didn't write anything about clay "saying" something, so I'm not sure where you got that from. Regardless, it's perfectly valid to use a phrase like "The clay is saying that it doesn't like this shape." It's just a more creative way to express scientific ideas.
@@apokalypthoapokalypsys9573 How about a point by point refutation of what is presented as fact? Otherwise it's just an ad hominem attack on the poster.
@@apokalypthoapokalypsys9573 You may not like the choice of terminology, but clay FACTUALLY has those qualities. The “memory” is the fact that, as a loaf of particles shifting around each other, clay is affected by every touch made to it, and this causes differences in density that certainly do show up throughout the rest of the time it’s processed. Especially during the firing, after it’s too late to do anything about it. The “nature of the clay” is simply a reference to the material properties, as in “materials science”, the study of the wide array of properties and applications of the characteristics of materials. All materials have a nature. Things they can and can’t do. Will or won’t do.
If you want to shoot down some actual “woo”, go to Deepak Chopra’s take on Quantum Physics. He doesn’t even define his own words. He’s offensively wrong about the actual science.
Woah, I didn't initially realize that the cavity between the bricks created another Helmholtz Resonator as well. So freaking cool! Well done on the presentation as well, I was captivated through the whole thing. Fastest 34 minutes ever!
Haha, maybe the next WBC collab talk! Thanks bro, now it's your turn to host a presentation on the millions of different breakthroughs that you create in a single afternoon
@@JoeMakes Do you think that bird nest could be a problem with the central hole? In America we have some very small bird species that might be able to nest in them. I don’t know much about Europeans birds which is why I ask. :)
I was wondering the same thing and I would guess that amongst hundreds of bricks, with various hole types, a few birds nests wouldn’t matter especially since they are somewhat porous and temporary
He mentioned that at the end. Nests would help the sound absorption and also help to absorb a wider range of frequencies.
It is a seriously cool and innovative design.
Win win, but not using a release agent sooner…
my biggest concern would definitely be drainage, you could design in overhangs to reduce rain getting in but preventing water ingress entirely is a losing battle. not just freeze-thaw, but also just the regular hazards of standing water: mosquito breeding, mold, or if you want to do some absolutely terrifying reading, read about legionnaire's outbreaks. the big contributing factors for legionnaire's disease are a combination of long lived standing water to breed the bacteria, and some process to aerosolize it; i'd be curious whether the concentrated acoustic vibrations could act as a sort of atomizer for spreading gross standing water particles.
I guess the other thing is cleaning; you'll have to deal with people filling them up with cigarette butts, pissing against the wall (oh no, now i have the phrase "acoustic piss atomizer" stuck in my head), and other such things, maybe it would be better to just have the neck be at the low point of the resonator, or even a dual neck (if that doesn't ruin the acoustics) with one near the top so they can be flushed out with water if needed.
would smallish holes (large enough to not clog) at the 2 low points negatively affect the resonator's absorbing properties? (my intuition is that it would make the resonator less efficient due to the cavity not being sealed, what i can't tell is whether reducing the efficiency would help it dissipate the energy better, or just make it worse at capturing it in the first place. i guess the first option is covered by dissipation and the second by Q factor, and at least in theory those should be separate variables, but i'm a bit fuzzy on this stuff)
i guess another option is adding some sort of diaphragm to the neck, but then you have to find a suitable material, and it sounds like this project is really trying to just focus on ceramics
Same concerns.
I now feel obligated to start a grindcore band just to name it "Acoustic Piss Atomizer."
why not just pointed at a slight angle toward the ground gravity will overcome any water
good points. Especially since we've tropical level mosquito army here.
If left unglazed terra cotta is actually permeable. A glaze would definitely seal it though. Pointing the neck at like a 5 degree downward angle would probably be good enough for the individual bricks, a drain slot would have to be incorperated into the outer chamber. Now that Im thinking about it these are actually entire walls of bird houses...which is a good thing I guess🤔
I put a Helmholtz resonator (aka J-pipe) on my truck 4 or 5 years ago with great success. Drastically reduced the engine drone at cruising speed. I used a frequency analyzer app on my phone to identify the resonant frequency, and then did the math.
Nice
Where'd you learn to do that?
This is so relevant everywhere cities, suburbs, and even rural nature. It seems like you cannot escape noise from transportation, production or recreation. Thank you for your work into this and I hope it continues to pick up steam. 8% INCREASE IN CARDIOVASCULAR ISSUES FOR EVERY 10% INCREASE IN DECIBELS IS CRAZY.
Thanks so much! Glad you liked it
Orange-pilled wisdom: cities aren't loud, cars are.
The dust from the tires and diesel fumes is the cause for cardiovascular disease not the noise.
My thesis for my physics degree was on Helmholtz Resonators, but I had no idea they had been used in architecture for so long! You did an incredible job with your design and presentation.
Yeah, another Helmholtz thinker! It was so interesting in finding out the old uses, as well as new (did you research Croatia's Zadar Sea Organ?). You might like my thesis and portfolio in the description
@@JoeMakes They should just give you a PhD already.
@@frequencymanipulator
Yes! Just give it away already!!
Haha, I'm smart enough to understand that I haven't done nearly enough work to be even close to saying "PhD!" But your encouragement for the next iteration may start me down that path 🤩 Thanks so much! @@frequencymanipulator
On it! 💪@@tech5298
Super cool. As a ceramics artist and amateur musical instrument designer, I feel remarkably inspired right now.
Awesome!
Indeed!
just imagine the sound that wall will produce thanks to gust of the wind
As an ocarina player, I have a small collection of fired ceramic helmholtz resonators.
I've been designing speakers and room acoustic solutions for listening rooms for years so the basic concepts here are all familiar to me. However the 3D pattern with the built in chambers was an intriguing idea. It could be utilised in a listening room as a diffusing and absorbing element very easily... The goal to absorb 20hz is a bit unrealistic though as wavelengths involved would require huge resonators and/or tube length.
I took a "physics of sound" class and they lightly hit on Helmholz Resonators, which blew my mind. So this was EXTRA fascinating. I love that the space between the objects creates the cavity rather than strictly a space inside of it. Really cool. Amazing work.
Thanks so much! I was amazed as well on the first day finding out about Helmholtz, and now can't stop thinking about it. Looking forward for another version soon!
A very common place to find Helmholtz Resonators is in everyday loud speaker cabinets such as your computer speakers. They are generally referred to as base reflex cabinets. The tube is usually sticking into the inside of the cabinet rather than out. Every loud speaker has what is called a resonates frequency, usually in the lower frequency range. This is a frequency where the speaker will have a volume peak. If the tube is tuned to the that frequency, the enclosure will restrict that frequency by forcing the extra energy into a lower frequency enabling the speaker to reproduce even lower base. My father hand built his hi-fi system in the early 1950's using this concept.
This is one of those designs that makes you wonder how this hasn't been thought of already, and why don't we see them along every stretch of highway
Wow, thanks! Maybe more will come
The answer is cost. (And space, probably.)
@@goliathsteinbeisser3547 or how its impossible to lay grout and not fill the cavity
roadside noise barriers seams like a great use for this
I’d say the practicality of making them cost effective, but also the susceptibility for the cavities to be filled with stuff from animals, insects, humans, and natural phenomena.
I've been to London and couldn't believe the noise level. It was must immense. You were just inundated with sound energy, it made you feel alive, like it would seemingly stimulate your sympathetic nervous system, so I 100% believe that heart disease is made worse by noise energy.
The volume and pitch of the sirens was the thing that annoyed me the most! But I'm starting to sound like an old grandpa 😂
Constant triggering of fight/flight response...that's my guess.
Alive, yes, but struggling. Wearing on the nervous system AND the heart/lung.
@@JoeMakes There was IIRC some research done on incorporating white noise into emergency vehicle sirens and turning down the wailing/whooping tones decades ago... don't think it was widely adopted though there has been some takeup for the reversing vehicle sound.
That's a shame because after moving back to Portland, I notice how quiet it is here! Thankfully@@joinedupjon
I love it! Additional thoughts:
1. Explore different frequencies. There may be use for areas with reduced speech noise, at university campus, library cafes, graveyards or areas with high pitched noises. This could let to different sizes or "keys" (like tonal keys) which should be able to combine with each other. For example with this one could estimate for a certain location to use 30% of the low frequency bricks and 70% of the mid to high.
2. I really like the secondary advantages like habitats for animals. Clay or ceramics also have the ability to absorb and give out water, witch is great for plants, but also has a cooling effect due to condensation. This can help to cool down cities (witch are hotter than the countryside) in times of climate change and absorb water in flooding seasons because of impervious surfaces in cities.
3. There are a few videos on youtube about architecture that was inspired by termite nests. Nest and buildings have a passive airflow system based on clay. It is helping to cool down rooms in an extremely hot environment. That might be interesting for you.
4. A lot of cities are getting to hot because of the lack of airflow. For this some use breeze blocks, basically clay bricks with big holes
I can see a combination of all of this. Everything is passive once it's build.
Thanks so much, Peter! These are great comments. I'll adapt the design and see what it is like for the next version. 👍
Of all the ideas and work presented here i have to say your best idea was uploading this presentation. I can just imagine how many conversations spatked in professional hobbyist and enthusiasts of both architecture and pottery will be having. Not to mention just your own general interest and enthusiasm seeping into your words made it so hard to pull away from the video. Of all the random things youtube throws on my feed I'm glad it was this. (Feed usually is primarily memes anime and video games)
Thanks! And you are totally right. I only recorded this for a couple friends that weren't able to see the talk in person, so I decided to set up a camera and mic. Never thought this would take off like it did! But goes to show me that it's the content that matters most (I'll make better edits for the next video)
As a landscape architect and musician, this is really intriguing and could be used in many neat outdoor applications.
Thanks, and glad you enjoyed! You have the perfect blend for this. Collab...?
@@JoeMakes down! I'd be happy to carry the conversation further and see where else this could go
Tesselations, Heimholtz resonator design being something akin to speaker enclosure design, and a set of very followable explanations made it into a great presentation of different concepts I wouldn't have expected to find together. Loved it. Cheers.
Thanks so much! I didn't plan to go down this path, but it all seemed to connect together in the end.
I think sometimes there's a perception that science lacks creativity. I think this video is a good example of how it often takes creativity and collaboration to innovate! 😁
Thanks! That's the best part of the experiments
It's a great idea to deaden sound in places where you will never be able to reduce the amounts of noise being generated in this way. A very interesting project with a real intersection of architecture, sound design and textiles.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed
*You made what I actually invented 15 years ago; what I call a band-trap device.*
My background is electrical/electronics engineering, so I have a strong grasp on particle physics, acoustics and well beyond. For a subwoofer box I was designing, I decided rather than all the ports and ducts of a high order dB box, I would utilize some of these design techniques but internally, I built a box that is ported for 50 Hz, 35 Hz and 25 Hz trapping these inside the box's internal chamber and firing them straight into the car by means of the container itself sitting on the body since since these are bands we feel even more than we hear.
*Innovation isn't what it needs to be but it's cool to see I'm not alone in these experimental adventures.* Another factor of noise with music equipment as a metal and instrumental guitarist is all the RF it picks up, particularly 50/60 Hz and relative harmonics of those trouble frequencies. *In that regard though, it boils down to isolation filters and requires insanely steep and high order dB filtering. Literally 105 dB of high pass isolation of around 72 Hz.* I've built a simpler experimental version and will eventually go full out with the suggested mathematic values.
Nice!
I graduated University of Portland in 1976 with a BBA in accounting. I ended up being a furniture manufacturer for 15 years before selling the corporation and transitioning into industrial real estate. Great to see a fellow UP alum getting involved in some very interesting projects. Best of luck on your future endeavors.
Thanks! Go Pilots!
As someone with HSP this is a godsend. Let’s hope this gets integrated into more cities!
HSP??
@@enigmavariations3809 Halal Snack Pack...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_processing_sensitivity
@@enigmavariations3809Halal Snack Pack. Must be eaten in a silent environment.
@@parkmatonark
💀
HSP means that someone is highly sensitive to noise or other senses.^^@@enigmavariations3809
I wonder how long they'd last in a northern climate with freeze thaw cycles, I'd imagine all those pockets would collect water and then break when said water freezes. Another question I'd have is if they resonate at 10hz, would they begin to produce noise if winds hit them just right? If so they could backfire spectacularly haha
Design multiple sizes for the world's largest pan flute.
Haha, there's a great example of this in Croatia called the Zadar Sea Organ
freeze and thaw cycling would be a concern like it is for all terracotta but those pockets aren't going to fill with water since the necks somewhat long and perpendicular to the sky. Rain doesn't fall horizontally even in a bad storm
Just tilt all the holes downward. Iterative design issue.
@nobodynoone2500 no need rain doesn't travel horizontal unless you in Florida during hurricane season. Also the sound you trying to capture is extending outwards from the source in either a cone shape or sphere meaning you want to capture the sound being directed outwards horizontally as the rest either is reflected up by the ground or out towards the sky.
My experience is in data science and machine learning so this area of research is totally new to me, even so you did an excellent job guiding the audience through your thought process and the existing techniques to show how you arrived at the final results, very very good work
Thanks so much!
These are the most beautiful bird houses I have ever seen!
Don't forget about the spiders!
The fact you took so many things into consideration (like birds nesting, insects and moss), which turned out actually enhance the performance of your design is fascinating. Wonderful presentation and great work!
Wow, thank you!
Used 3D printed sound absorption panels back when I lived in dorms on college. Could not stand any of the noise since people were just way too noisy. Works like a charm
I feel your pain! Nice
The holiness of churches just took on a whole other meaning for me 😅 What a journey!
Haha, you would find the connection somehow!
I'm so glad brilliant people are asking these kinds of questions, testing their ideas, iterating, and creating solutions like this with the latest tools. Gives me hope for desperately innovation to survive the future. Great work.
Couldn't agree more! Thanks!
This is fun. I did a research on accumulating "city" sound energy with geometry. We were more interested in how much energy we can recuperate from sound vibration, but the side effect would be reducing noise, I guess.
It grew from my brother's research on reducing transformer vibration, and I made 3 more projects total - one to absorb general city noise, one to make sound arrays along the railroad near the station, and one reversed option, to amplify voice frequencies in opera hall reconstruction project. The idea was in use more "layers" of resonators with grooves in Fraunhofer diffraction pattern.
"Marcus my friend. I hear a person's voice calling from more than 20 centuries in the future. Although I known not how he casts his voice through time, he seems to be saying that his culture hasn't quite hoisted their garments up high enough to adequately cover their loins! "
Herman Helmholtz is on of my scientific heroes. His studies on sound and music deserve more attention.
The Harley-Davidson engined Buell motorcycles of the late 90s used a Helmholtz Resonator airbox.
How did it work?
@@snorttroll4379 Simply stated, it amplifies the wave of air going into the engine, kind of like a speaker box amplifies sound. It gives the fuel/air charge a bit of a bounce into the combustion chamber. Most modern cars and motorcycles have an airbox that does much more than just house the air filter.
I've been considering this problem since the 1980's. How noice travels ( wave lengths react and move) and the reduction of or muting or prevention. So glad to see someone who can, doing something about it.
Thanks so much! Glad to "hear" we are not alone! Now I think about sound waves in architecture in so many more applications. Cheers
A quick way to test some of these concepts would be to use snow. A snow fort or packing wet snow into shapes with a mold and building a wall could be a easy and cost effective way to try various shapes. Obviously, this needs to be done in a cold location, but as it only takes a few minutes of testing with a prototype; it could be ideal.
Or like plastic containers fillable with water 😄
Nice!
Happy that RUclips recommended me this, real interesting subject. I have to check if my city/country has any regulated limits on how loud it can be.
Awesome! Yeah, I was surprised to find that out
This is absolutely amazing. I love the idea of this being a home for bees and birds. Also, they might even provide thermal stabilizing qualities due to the cavity inside and being made of ceramic - colder in the summer, warmer in the winter, might allow them to last longer due to thermal stress.
Thanks so much! I'll do some more studies 🤩
I was just thinking over the problem of noise in swimming pools. Thanks for working through the problem of noise and sharing your ideas.
Great minds think alike because I also looked into swimming pools and water! Glad it helped
Seeing the challenges presented and the innovation that came from it is truly a human testament!
Thanks so much! And tell that to my professor 😂
Excellently thought out and executed. I can see this concept being adopted in multiple urban and even home environments. Bravo and keep going!
Thanks so much! I'll keep updating this as well 🤩
Wow, do you know how hard I’ve hunted for this type of information in the last 15 years? It is incredibly hard to locate any resources explaining principles, applications, or products for outdoor noise management. Now I find out we actually know a fair bit. My city is erecting solid sound walls intended to block highway noise but all they seem to do is bounce it around without reducing it significantly. I knew there had to be a way to absorb rather than reflect it.
Very cool, though in your triangle from your final frame I count 27 mosquito breeding pools :) There may need to be some way to have water drain out of all these cavities or for the bricks to be lined with some anti-mosquito anti-whatever else likes still pools of water coating.
Good call! And by integrating a channel throughout all the bricks, it will also help absorb lower frequency sounds because the cavity will be increased 🤩
@@JoeMakesa rare engineering "win-win" :)
@@JoeMakes and they will also be weak as hell and get blown over whenever the wind is higher than 25km/h. Seriously, who would build anything using these hollowed out ceramic bricks? nobody. It's not structurally sound. you're better off using traditional building materials and soundproofing with an extra layer. But it doesn't take a PhD to tell you that.
Limestone natural perpetualish waterpumps based on gravity. Running water 86s larvae
RUclips has recommended this video to me for the past 7 days, I initially dismissed it but finally caved in and it was absolutely worth it! Great bit of design!
Haha, RUclips is as persistent as I was trying to be accepted to the school 😂. Glad you enjoyed! I'll make an updated version with much better editing 💪
You did the world a wonderful thing. Thanks Joe!
Thanks! Glad you enjoy the work!
Bearfaced Audio in Brighton has been using Helmholz Resonators in bass and guitar speaker cabinets for years. You should email Alex who is the boss and who would likely LOVE to talk to you about your wall.
Thanks so much for this! I'll contact Alex (I used to visit Brighton regularly). Glad you enjoyed the talk
Damn this is fascinating. In another life I would have been a really avid architecture student I think, but I just don't have the energy or academic prowess for that right now, so I get my content on youtube like this and it's awesome shit! Really good job, would be great to see this come to life in construction projects IRL.
Thanks bro! To be honest, if you asked me 3 years ago if I was also going to be an architect student, I would have laughed as well. But if you are able to make time for a project, then you are on the journey. Glad to fill in the gaps, and looking forward to your thesis paper😂
I spent 10 years working graveyard in stores stocking shelves wishing I went back to college. Then when I almost died in a freak accident I just did and it was the best choice I've made. There were struggles but now I'm paid 10x more and I feel so much more fulfilled. I enjoy what I do and I look forward to Monday. If you ever are in a place to go to school to follow your passions id go for it. I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors!
Wow! I totally agree. We get stuck thinking that we shouldn't push ourselves, and when we "wake up" sometimes it is too late. Glad you took the chance and strove for better. It was worth the squeeze 💪 Keep it up, brother@@scar3xcr0
Discovery of "On the Sensations of Tone" was life-changing for me. Thanks for mentioning it. It's beautiful to see how it keeps giving ideas for cool projects like yours.
Thanks so much! Just standing on the shoulders of giants, right?
This was an excellent presentation! Thank you for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it! More to come!
My first thought is "how do you keep animals/bugs from using the holes to make nests?"
Looks like they could easily become a motel for birds, small rodents, bees and wasps.
The bird nests may act as more sound absorption. And with the price of rent in London, maybe a bird motel is a good way to get them housed
that was my first thought. Once these fill up with nest material and bird skeletons for those that don't make it... won't be very useful at all for dampening noise.
Exactly. Anything inside the cavity of a Helmholtz resonator will change the characteristics. It could be god, in the sense of providing absorption for the tuned frequency, but it would also change the tuned frequency. The cavity depth is part of the tuning, so any object that makes the apparent depth different, is going to change the frequency.
@@ChristLink-Channel If that would be a problem maybe they could put screens on the holes. It wouldn't keep insects out though, but it would stop birds
Dunno, if every brick absorbs a slightly different frequency, maybe it would be a good thing? Noise from cars varies. We mostly notice the engine/exhaust and tyre noises, though there's a host of other less obvious or less common sounds which add up (eg. belt squeal and wheel bearings off the top of my head).
If you can't eliminate an issue, make it a feature@@ChristLink-Channel
Nice! I wondered about water storing up in the cavities. Maybe you could have the entry low enough to drain the cavity/stop water build up from rain or humidity cycles. Also you would want to stop people from climbing them and breaking the chute. Maybe a facade around the chutes?
Thanks! I love the idea of a facade for a facade 😍
Wow, this was a great talk. Thanks for uploading.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Your work can make a significant difference in the world. City traffic noise is associated with worse health as you eluded to in your presentation. I happen to be in Arizona and I noticed that sound is pretty muted from simple brick walls around most of the residences. At this time I am renting a place within few thousand feet of the highway. I don't spend a lot of time outside but when I do, I can hear the drone of the highway going through Tucson.
Edit: I just so happen to know a materials science engineer through language exchange. He knows Chinese so we speak our languages each half a session. He is quite accomplished and went to Yokohama university and worked in Japan for awhile. Now in Houston.
Good luck in your future engineering career.
Thanks so much!
This is super cool! I'm in the process of designing a recording studio for a music school, and I'm on a shoestring budget. This gives me an entirely different perspective on acoustic treatments from found materials! In particular, pallets and cardboard carpet tubes from the hardware store.
Thanks! Yeah, it's a great way to recycle tubes into a low budget acoustic panel. Egg cartons are another cheap option that can work 🤩
I was tuning my apartment for a high end hifi here in Bulgaria - it had tiled floors and marble walls so it was a MIGHTAMRE. I put up thick curtains but the thing I found to be great was a really cheap fibrous insulation material for cavity walls. It was probably very bad as insulation and I had to make wooden frames and cover it in fabric just to stop the stuff from decaying and falling apart. But it worked wonders at stopping the reflection from the back of the speakers.
It was like a low grade rockwool about 40mm thick.
I've been checking out the acoustic properties of water with epsom salts in it; It absorbs around 100Hz very well, which is a very difficult and important frequency range for traditional acoustic treatment to deal with. This was discovered by the US military when studying ocean water (regular table salt has barely any effect).
I have yet to do a full installation, but my initial results in my home studio are promising for corner bass traps. I've filled some 10-gallon jugs that restaurants get oil in with the water/epsom salt mix and covered them with a simple frame for aesthetics, and to prevent them from getting punctured. I put 3 or 4 of them in corners of rooms that reflect bass and make a room sound muddy.
I'd love to see proper tests done to prove my hypothesis that these are a great cost effective choice.
@@inthefadewouldnt the sound just bounce off of the plastic? How does the epsom salt watef play in to this
@@JoeMakes Egg cartons do nothing but bad sound. They are horrible diffusers.
I recently started using a laser on bone dry clay, and knowing how it reacted I would say that combining really thin layers of slip deposition followed by a laser sintering of the slip would allow far better printing performance. It even bubbles a little, which would help save on material cost.
That's fascinating! Lasers and slip is a wild combo! Do you have anything published on this? I would love to know more 😍
Would love to see that in action. But wouldn't that make it extra brittle?
What type of laser?
it does make the top layer very brittle, as in a ceramic foam. @@HazzaBaniMalek
c02 laser@@IndependantMind168
Very cool; not just the object itself, but the explanation of the fabrication and design process. I'm always looking to expand my "back pocket" knowledge on different media and processes. Ceramics and slip casting were things I had completely overlooked and I'm grateful for the start-to-finish presentation of your project!
Glad it was helpful!
Really cool work, thanks for sharing!
You're welcome! More to come
Well intentioned but ultimately completely impractical. The cavities would soon fill with all sorts of debris that would soon thereafter allow plants to grow in them and destroy the wall if not regularly cleaned, which given the design is almost impossible to do easily. And while the design looks very modern, a more conventional flat stacked form would work just as well an make installation by masons far simpler. Also, being a resonator I can't help but think that these would turn into a source of noise when the wind blows past the wall, think blowing over top of an open bottle then multiply that by the number of bricks.
Then most importantly, how does this compare to already existing forms of noise reduction? No mention of it so I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume not so well.
They mention at the frequency specified similiar reduction to wood and foam. No idea thickness or otherwise but it was mentioned slightly.
Welcome to University 😂
Damage by plants is actually a very good point. Would probably work well in deserts but not in many other places.
The first thing that came to mind for me was damage by people. If this is in an urban environment the walls would have to be protected from vandalism as pottery is so easy to break.
Learning ceramic engineering the hard way.
Sanitary ware mfg's could make these for you quite easily and you wouldn't have to worry about all the intricacies of ceramic production and focus on the shape and performance of the design.
Not as much fun as diy
Not as much fun as diy
Really solid prototyping and being able to pivot to new ideas and forms to advance this project. Thanks for the informative talk and I really hope to see this idea implemented at scale.
Thanks so much! I'll do an updated video about that
Refreshing science and good usecase. Solid work. Thank you
Thanks so much!
This is really really cool! The birds would LOOOVE that wall with all that built in housing. hahhaha
Amazing work, bro!
Thanks man!
@@JoeMakes How would birds living in them affect their properties? Would the birds and their nests be like the rockwool in the Sound Leca Super example (10:55), absorbing more sound? Or would it alter the frequency absorbed?
I would think a little bit of both: the nest would be similar to rockwool as well as raise the frequency being absorbed since the cavity is now smaller. But I didn't test for this. Could be a fun experiment! @@stufffromplaces5045
Birds and bugs... first thing I though of. Not that it's automatically a bad thing. It must drain though... mosquito habitat *is* an automatically bad thing.
@@4Fixerdave the birds arent a problem. ever had a rat in a subwoofer?
ideal spot for a homeless rat...
When you mentioned moss growing on these things I couldn’t get Chia Pets out of my head. I wonder if aircrete would have any sound absorbing properties? Consistency is difficult with aircrete. Thanks for your presentation. 👏👏
I was also thinking Chia pets the entire project 😂
awesome presentation!
hope this goes further!
Thanks! Will do an updated video soon about future findings 👍
This is an amazing research and development. Cannot wait to see it across the world.
Thanks! I'll put the file out there to download for free
Designing to mitigate traffic noise is an interesting topic, and a this was a great presentation! A different design that might be more easy to scale and practical to adopt could be based on existing hollow brick production by extrusion. You could make a single column cavity running through the longest axis, then drill out a thin neck from the outward face before firing. The ends of the chamber would be sealed by the neighboring bricks and mortar. The ends could also easily be packed with further sound absorbing materials before installation
Great stuff, I didn't mention it in the talk, but actually prototyped with extrusion methods early on. However the university didn't have the large equipment early into the program, so switched to slip casting. But would love to go down this rabbit hole!
Designing safe and accessible bike infrastructure is going to go a lot further to reducing traffic noise than trying to replace every surface with acoustic bricks
@@AB-wf8ek Or.. and please hear me out.. We don't abandon every other solution you think is not as good and instead have multiple options for different environments.
@@Reiswaffel I get that he's just trying to demonstrate the idea of acoustic architecture, but it's a purely cosmetic subject trying to cover up a serious issue.
Not only does this particular example appear to be very impractical, adding complexity to a solution that's just a bandaid, but it also displays a complete lack of awareness for the fundamental issue to begin with.
To me it feels like making a video about designing better paper bags to put over the faces of people scarred by skin cancer.
I apologize if I'm being overly critical, but I really believe people need to wake up to how horrible car centric infrastructure is, and talking about the issue in such a superficial way seems like sticking your head in the sand.
@@AB-wf8ek I don't know if you watched the presentation, but one of the sides of the park he was designing this for was bordered by a train line.
Public transport enables much longer distance commuting than bike travel. (I dunno about you, but I don't want to travel 40km each way by bike when I need to have a client meeting in the city).
How do you mitigate public transport noise?
It's almost like there are more than 1 problem that could be mitigated by this.
I just realized how funny it was that I became involved in various noise abatement tasks, without any formal course of acoustics in (electrical engineering) studies. Indeed, I don’t recall, when and where I met Helmholtz resonator concept. I just remember they used to “tune” the resonators with appropriate amounts of ash (sort of sand, actually). I also remember building a tape loop for a tape recorder, so I could record a few “claps” and get a repetitive echo for analysis. I even built my own frequency analyzer set for this purpose. I also have owned a Bruel&Kjaer sound level meter for several years and in the past couple years found a second hand 1/3 octave filter set for it. Other than this, my profession has been control systems, not really acoustics. But I cannot do everything at the same time, can I ???
We can try! Or collab 😂
Very interesting!
Thank you for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I really appreciate people growing our understanding in the physical sciences
Yeah!
I love the idea! Did you ever test in a real environment? Like, building a wall of it there in east London and measure if it makes a differece. I would be really courious how good it works. And did you calculate the frequencys of those three Resonators? Propably with some calculations and some small adjustments on the design you could improve the outcome. I have so many questions and ideas... ;-)
Thanks so much! Keep the ideas coming! I was not able to test this at the site in the end because it was used for the final school show instead. But I'm going to make some adaptations and build one to test again, taking those thoughts into consideration 🤩
I would also like to point out that these resonators also provide superior insulation value because the air inside these cavities are relatively stagnant and this will improve the energy efficiency of the structure.
Do you plan on putting these bricks into production and commercializing them? Also, do you have a brick design that faces all the resonators in one direction?
Nice idea! I wasn't planning on producing them because of the time it took to make. And yes, if you want resonators in one direction, then you only need to slip cast one shape (I made 2 different molds)
@@JoeMakes would you be willing to open source the design for others to play around with it in their own building projects?
Great research! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for watching!
Inspiring and enterprising!🎉
I like the iteration, but as a trained sculptor I wonder why you didn't talk to *any* ceramics artist. They could have told you all you had to know to shorten the design process by at least 50%.
We did. Many tours of factories and pros
@@JoeMakes Yes, I saw, that later iterations used rather professional techniques.
BTW: abso-fucking-lutely great idea!!! Love it!
Ok, the fancy cool bricks are nice. But if I wanted to cheaply replicate the effect at scale I'd experiment with concrete cinderblocks which have nicely sized cavities already, fronted by normal bricks with a specific spacing pattern to make specifically sized gaps, and then either a solid back or another gapped brick layer. Normal cheap materials installed in a clever way.
Yeah, that's what the Paddington Station slide was referring to. But for this program we had to create something new in ceramic manufacturing. But now I'm looking for gaps in any walls that I find 😂
Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Cool concepts. Love the harmony with design and nature. 👍
Thanks! Glad you liked it and more to come
Insane project. Very cool
Thanks!
Well, I watched this whole thing. My father was a ceramics teacher so I immediately knew that your initial design was doomed. I've seen my share of slip casting in my childhood. The second design is obviously much better. It's cool you got to spend some time working with one of my favourite mediums. Cheers.
It was a fun journey
The algorithm has blessed me today. Great presentation!
Thanks so much! Glad you found it interesting! More to come
Brilliant contribution 👏
Thanks!
Excellent concept, brilliant application, and wonderful presentation!
Glad you liked it!
That is so awesome!
Thanks so much! Glad you like it! More to come
This is such an impactful thesis, you should be so proud!
Really appreciate it! You might like the paper thesis in the link 🤗
Excellent! Knowing what a helmholtz resonator from college, I love the idea! Will have to watch this later.
Thanks, hope you enjoy it!
This is awesome!
Thanks!
Very interesting. Thank you.
Welcome!
This is really cool. Thank you!
You're welcome!
great research and work
Thanks!
Amazed at the amount of thought that you put into this, not just from design, but manufacturing as well. Definitely a good call to make the bricks intuitive enough that your average bricklayer doesn't need to consult anyone just to do their job. I do have some concerns about the ability for the inside of the wall to retain water and just the human nature to stuff trash in seemingly convenient places, but given your timeline, I'm impressed by what you accomplished. Good job!
Thanks so much! Glad you found the entire process interesting and fun. I'm making a second version that incorporates the drainage of water, so stay tuned for that!
This is really cool, good job.
Thanks so much!
Thank you. Very interesting
Glad you enjoyed it!
nicely done!
thanks!
This is incredible. I was working with a sound absorption panel out if Perth Western Australia. This is the answer to traffic noise indeed.
Thanks! Perth is a beautiful place. Hope this helps!
Incredible
You’ve got a nice tone Joe! Keep up the good work!
Thanks so much! Didn't expect this video to take off, but glad it is resonating
I enjoyed this presentation. Good job.
Glad you enjoyed it!