Evaluation of acoustic silence, acoustic intelligibility and acoustic sacred factor in Goan catholic churches

Abstract

Acoustic Silence, Acoustic Intelligibility and Acoustic Sacred Factor are the acoustically constituted determinants of tranquillity in a Catholic church. The results presented here are part of a study that investigates the behaviour of derived acoustic parameters in worship spaces. Acoustically, Silence Factor (SiF) is found to decay quadratically with LAeq (R2=0.95, p<0.01); Intelligibility Factor (InF) decays quadratically with mid-frequency Loudness GMF (R2=0.69, p<0.01) and the prediction of Sacred Factor is found to be insignificant. Architecturally, Silence Factor is found to grow linearly with the width of the nave (of the church) (R2=0.69, p=0.04), Intelligibility Factor grows linearly with the minimum height of the nave (HMIN_NV) (of the church) (R2=0.91, p<0.01) and the regression of Sacred Factor is found to be insignificant with the dimensional parameters. The prediction equations presented here could enable a more scientific approach to design and conservation of worship space.