Caracterização acústica de grutas turísticas - casos de estudo em Portugal

Abstract

Since the Paleolithic, mankind has been taking advantage of the acoustical characteristics of natural caves to perform its rituals. Nowadays many of these spaces are used as touristic attractions or even as stage of musical performances. This study characterizes three touristic caves in Portugal where in situ measurements were made of background noise sound pressure level, RASTI and Reverberation Time. The average RT values were 1.3 to 1.7 s and the RASTI average values revealed good intelligibility (from 0.50 to 0.57). The sound absorption coefficient of the stone that surrounds these caves was also measured in a standing wave apparatus.