The present circumstances of international harmonisation of building acoustic standards in Europe

Abstract

The European Standardisation Organisation CEN received mandates from the European Commission to facilitate trade within the European Single Market by harmonised European standards which must be published by each of the National Standards Bodies as identical national standards.Most of these anticipated harmonised European standards are already available at least in a stage of advanced drafts.They cover the areas determination of material properties, absorption and reverberation time measurements, measurement and rating of sound insulation as well as testing of sound emission from water installations and from service equipment in buildings, on measurement of flanking transmission and also on the estimation of acoustic performance of buildings from the performance of products.The measurement of sound intensity in building acoustics and also standards on new techniques as MLS will supplement later harmonised European standards which shall form a comprehensive tool to avoid trade barriers between countries.