This handbook gives basic and comprehensive information on the understanding, measurement, and control of noise in industrial environments. It is intended for engineers with or without acoustical experience; to this end, it presents sections on noise problem analysis, instrumentation, and fundamental methods of noise control, and properties of acoustical materials.
Noise is commonly described as unwanted sound. This definition implies a strong subjective element in any assessment of the effects of noise, since what may be tolerated by one person may be intolerable to another. Although noise is by no means a recent phenomenon, it is only with the rapid industrialization of the last century and the concomitant accelerated development of powerful high-speed machinery that it has become a pollutant of major concern. The effects of noise exposure on humans range from disturbance or annoyance to temporary or even irreversible deafness.
