The first two days of lectures in the training classes of the Noise and Vibration Control short course cover the underlaying concepts of acoustics, vibrations, and noise as they apply to noise and vibration control. Acoustic topics include simple harmonic motion of sound waves; simple vibratory systems; acoustic wave propagation in air; speed of sound in fluids; sound intensity and power; ideal acoustical sources and their behavior; distributed sources and their radiation from beams, plates, and shells; radiation of sound from structures; acoustical and noise measurements; sound pressure level, sound intensity level, and sound power level; calculations with decibels; how noise sources add together; loudness concepts; acoustic & noise measurement metrics of LEQ, LDN, LMAX, LMIN, LN. Noise topics include the measurement of time signals of sound & vibrations; the use and selection of microphones and accelerometers; Fourier Series concepts, and transfer functions; octave and third octave band filter; A, B, and C weighting networks of sound level meters; averaging times used in sound level meters including the fast and slow response; room equation with concepts of the near, far, direct, and reverberant field; effects of changing room absorption on sound levels; sound intensity and power defined; sound intensity and power measurements; changes in sound level with distance; outdoor propagation of sound waves; room natural frequencies and modes; wave propagation of sound in ducts.

The next three days of lectures in the training classes of the Noise and Vibration Control short course cover principles and applications of noise control & vibration control. Topics include the systematic approach to identifying and quantifying source(s), path(s), and receiver(s); rank ordering of noise sources for cost-effective noise and vibration control; airborne and structure-borne noise propagation; noise control at the source; vibration isolation to disrupt the transmission of vibratory energy; radiation efficiency concepts for structures; transmission loss of panels, walls, and structures; flanking noise problems; degradation of transmission loss due to cracks and gaps; noise barriers, their design, and barrier computations; noise enclosures and their design; noise absorption due to lined bends and elbows of ducts; plenum chamber mufflers and their attenuation of sound waves in ducts; dissipative and reactive mufflers and silencers; viscoelastic and constrained layer damping for noise control; sound absorption and sound absorbing materials for noise reduction of sound waves in rooms, ducts, enclosures, and cavities; measurement of an absorption coefficient in reverberation rooms and plane wave tubes; lagging for the reduction of noise radiated from pipes and structures; sound intensity and power measurements using the sound intensity method and near field techniques; source identification and isolation with experimental techniques; measurement of sound power using the Sound Intensity Method and near field techniques that only require ordinary sound level meters.

Applications include noise & vibration control of machines, products, buildings and structures; sound control; sound and noise abatement; sound & vibration reduction; noise reduction; measurement of sound and vibration levels; industrial noise measurements and control; community noise measurement and control; HVAC noise & vibration control; product sound quality, quieting of products; building acoustics and noise & vibration control; product noise control.