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INCE Business Office
9100 Purdue Road, Suite 200,
Indianapolis, Indiana, 46268.
Phone: (317) 735-4063
FAX: (317) 280 8527
E-mail: ibo@inceusa.org

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Overview of INCE/USA Technical Activities

Steve Hambric is Vice President of Technical Activities for INCE/USA and chairs the Technical Activities Board, comprised of the Technical Activitiy Committee Chairs who help: 1) produce special sessions at INCE/USA conferences, and 2) organize special theme issues of Noise Control Engineering Journal (NCEJ). Associated with the Chairs are 13 committees.  The Technical Activity Board meets on the first evening (typically Monday, 7-9pm) of Noise-Con and US organized Internoise meetings.

Suggestions for conference session titles, volunteers for organizing and participating in conference sessions, and  ideas for special issues of NCEJ are all welcome. Please contact the relevant Committee Chair if you are interested in becoming involved in INCE technical activities. The name of the chair(s) and the scope of each committee is given below. You can email the relevant chair by clicking on the name.

Sources & Propagation, Chair: Victor Sparrow and Kai Ming Li, Natalia Sizov

This committee brings together INCE members with interests related to noise sources and how that noise propagates to the listener. Regarding noise sources the committee promotes characterizing noise sources, understanding their radiation mechanisms, and devising noise control methodologies via source modification. Regarding propagation the committee seeks improved methods for measuring and predicting the propagation of noise through both structures and the air. Source alteration techniques, outdoor and indoor sound propagation, and scattering and diffraction are all within the purview of the sources and propagation technical committee. The committee is committed both to developing new understanding of how the sound from real noise sources is generated and gets to the listener and to applying engineering principles to minimize the noise.

Passive Control, Chair: J. Stuart Bolton

The objective of the committee is to promote activities and disseminate information in passive control of noise and vibration. Areas of interest include, but are not confined to, analytical, computational, and experimental efforts on: (1) reactive, dissipative, and hybrid mufflers and silencers; (2) flow noise and suppression; (3) flow-acoustic coupling and suppression; (4) flow-structure interaction; and (5) acoustical materials used for sound absorption, damping, vibration isolation, structures, and sound barriers. The foregoing objective is achieved by: (1) organizing technical sessions at the NOISE-CON Conference and INTER-NOISE Congress and Exposition, thereby creating an effective exchange environment between research and application communities; and (2) encouraging participants to publish their works in the Noise Control Engineering Journal.

Active Control, Chair: Marty Johnson

The purpose of the Active Control Technical Committee is to foster research, applications, unified practice and communication of new techniques in the active control of sound and vibration. Areas of interest to the committee include not only applications involving noise and vibration control, but also sound field reconstruction and other novel applications of active control. Subtopics of interest include physical principles of active control, algorithms, transducers, sensing and actuating techniques, and hardware design. To accomplish these objectives, the Committee seeks to do the following: (1) organize sessions for NOISE-CON and INTER-NOISE meetings; (2) provide continued support for the ACTIVE symposia which have been held on a regular basis; (3) encourage members and others to publish active control research and case histories in the Noise Control Engineering Journal; and (4) provide a forum for information exchange as a means of promoting research and unified practice in the field.

Perception and Effects of Noise, Chair: Wade Bray

This group has focused on organizing sessions for conferences and one-day symposia (SQS98 and SQS 2002) associated with INCE and international INCE meetings.  Topics of interest include:

1. Sound quality modeling: metrics, psychoacoustic testing, standardization
2. Binaural sound quality
3. Sound quality of environmental sounds
4. Designing the sound of products
5. Influence of attributes other than loudness on sound quality
6. Human response to vibration and coupling of response to noise and vibration
7. Modeling and predicting annoyance including the influence of information and context on response modeling
8. Surveying and psychoacoustic testing techniques

Experimental Techniques and Instrumentation, Chair: Jason Kunio
Committee Members: W. Steve Shepard Jr.,  Wen L. Li, Todd Rook

The committee acts as a forum for the dissemination of information and research results on experimental and instrumentation methods in the fields of noise and vibration control, and acoustics. This forum is established through periodic meetings at NOISE-CON and INTER-NOISE conferences, sessions organized at these conferences, and the organization of seminars or short courses in conjunction with these same conferences. From these conferences, the committee will work with the Noise Control Engineering Journal Board to identify papers of special merit for inclusion in the Journal. In addition, the committee strives to provide an interface to international and national groups on relevant experimental and measurement procedures, facilitate the coalition of divergent approaches to the same experimental and measurement problems, and act as a resource for those seeking information on current experimental and instrumentation developments.

Transportation Noise, Chair: Micah Downing and Judy Rochat

The Transportation Noise Technical Committee will provide forums for the exchange of technical and regulatory information related to the development and application of noise and vibration research, and methodologies to the transportation industry. A major thrust of the technical exchanges will be the integration and dissemination of applied research results into the industrial community. Technical topics will cover noise and vibration tests, analysis and processes that are related to surface transportation noise concerns from customer and regulatory perspectives.

Industrial Noise, Chair: Mike Lucas

The Industrial Noise Control Committee provides a forum for exchange of technical and regulatory information related to the management of industrial noise. Areas of interest to the Committee include the application of programs, approaches, technologies, and products for controlling occupational and community exposure to noise generated by industrial processes, facilities, and equipment. In particular, the Committee seeks to do the following: (1) organize sessions for NOISE-CON and INTER-NOISE meetings; (2) sponsor specialized workshops and seminars in conjunction with NOISE-CON conferences or INTER-NOISE congresses; (3) encourage INCE members and others to publish, in Noise News International and the Noise Control Engineering Journal, case histories as well as accounts of successful programs and approaches related to the management of industrial noise; (4) serve as an information exchange and clearinghouse for members and others interested in the management of industrial noise; (5) form alliances with other professional and trade organizations whose charters overlap or complement those of the Committee; (5) develop, provide, and/or advertise the availability of educational materials for members and others to use in their outreach and guidance programs.

Community Noise, Chair: Larry Finegold
Committee members: Frank Brittain, Bennett Brooks, Ken Kaliski

The Technical Committee on Community Noise (TCCN) was formed for the purpose of promoting the use of noise control engineering technologies and adequate noise management policies to reduce noise exposure in communities across America to levels necessary to adequately protect the health and welfare of the US population. To fulfill these objectives, INCE TCCN will pursue the following general priorities:

1. Promote the development and use of state-of-the-art noise control technologies, including providing information on these technologies to the public and relevant government agencies
2. Promote sponsorship and conduct of high priority research on the effects of noise, including health effects, community annoyance and sleep disturbance research
3. Support the development of up-to-date national and local government noise management and land use policies, including increased cooperation between industry, government and the public on noise control issues
4. Support programs to educate the public on the adverse effects of community and environmental noise exposure
5. Support the continued professional development of the noise control engineering field and promotion of their services to communities
6. Coordinate INCE/USA community noise activities with those of other national and international professional acoustics organizations and government agencies

Measurement and Control of Product Noise Emissions, Chair: Matt Nobile

The scope of the Product Noise Emissions Technical Committee is noise emission from products in general, without focusing on a specific product type or family. The committee will primarily be concerned with the fundamental aspects of acoustical measurement technology, methodology, and standardization as they are applied to products in general. The scope also includes methods for disseminating information on product noise emissions to consumers and the general public, such as product noise declarations and labels. Noise control topics may be considered when appropriate, but these are usually better placed under the Passive Control and Active Control Technical Committees. Similarly, the perceptual aspects of product noise emissions are not included in this scope since these are addressed in the Perception and Effects of Noise TC. One of the goals of this committee is to spin off sub-committees dealing with particular product families that will address noise emission issues specific to that family and that will develop measurement and declaration test codes specific to their industries. The Sub-Committee on ITE is an example of this (even though it has existed as a separate TC long before the establishment of this parent TC). Products include small and large household appliances, information technology products, home entertainment products, power tools, lawn and garden equipment, air-conditioning products, medical equipment, test instrumentation, and many others. Transport vehicles, outdoor construction equipment, and typically large industrial equipment are not included in the scope of this committee.

Sub-Committee on Information Technology Equipment (ITE), Chair: Jeff Schmitt

The scope of the Information Technology Equipment Technical Sub-Committee is noise control engineering relating to information technology equipment (ITE), with a primary focus on acoustical measurement technology, methodology, and standardization. In addition to organizing special sessions at INCE conferences and soliciting technical papers for NCEJ, the principal activities of the Committee are to monitor, elucidate, and continually reevaluate the technical underpinnings of the acoustical standards and test codes pertinent to the ITE industry. Given that our members are volunteers with limited time and resources, the activities undertaken by the committee should meet the following practical criteria: (i) can be reasonably handled by the resources available; (ii) are directly related to the mission of the TC/ITE; (iii) are important to the IT industry as a whole; (iv) are timely, in terms of work being done by other committees allied to the IT industry (such as standards writing groups); (v) are of strong interest to a majority of the TC members or potential TC members; (vi) are within the realm of expertise of the TC members or potential TC members; and (vii) are of a nonproprietary nature to allow competing firms to cooperate freely. The results of TC/ITE activities should benefit either INCE members in general or members of working groups developing standards and test codes for the ITE industry.

Prediction and Modeling Techniques, Chair: Bryce Gardner

This committee will provide a forum for the dissemination and clarification of information related to the direct application of large scale computer analysis codes or software to noise control and acoustic problems. Analysis methods or codes of interest include finite and boundary element methods, statistical energy analysis, ray tracing, transfer matrix and other computational techniques for addressing interior and exterior sound propagation and radiation issues including interactions with vibrating structures and other media. An attempt will be made to establish a clear forum on the applicability of existing or new codes and numerical techniques to contemporary noise control problems in industry or society. To facilitate this important task, the committee will organize special technical sessions for NOISE-CON and INTER-NOISE meetings, solicit authoritative papers for Noise Control Engineering Journal, and provide a forum for its members in maintaining and developing the science and art of computer modeling. Other activities may include the formulation of benchmark noise control problems for analysis verification, organizing round robin modeling exercises, and liaison with other technical committees or professional societies.

Building Acoustics, Chairs: Kenric VanWyk and Mandy Kachur

The objective of the Building Acoustics Technical Committee is to advance the understanding of acoustical performance of building components, materials, and systems, with the ultimate goal of improving the acoustical quality for buildings of all types. This is done by organizing technical sessions at INCE conferences, encouraging the publication of papers on related topics, and disseminating relevant information to the Noise Control Engineering community, American Institute of Architects, American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air Conditioning Engineers, other professional groups, and the public. Primary topics include criteria for sound quality in buildings, acoustical performance of building materials including standard construction materials as well as special acoustical products, prediction of sound levels in buildings, sound propagation through building structures and sound produced by HVAC, electrical and plumbing systems.

The committee seeks to identify building noise control topics of interest to the building development, design, and owner sectors through two means: 1) the consulting practice of acoustical consultants on the committee and 2) standards activities in the building acoustics areas. Once identified, NOISE-CON and INTER-NOISE sessions would be developed that address these areas of interest. Persons who are working in these areas and known by committee members would be invited to give papers at these sessions. These would be individuals known to committee members directly or indirectly through contacts with other members. The invited papers would form the basis of a session to which a general solicitation of papers would be made. The next, and most critical step, is to encourage presenters to prepare manuscripts for submission to NCEJ for consideration for publication.

Standards, Chair: Brandon Tinianov

This technical activity represents the technical interests of INCE as a voting member in the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Committee S12 on Noise. The Acoustical Society of America (ASA) provides the Secretariat for the committee. Its mission is the development of standards, specifications, and terminology in the field of acoustical noise pertaining to methods of measurement, evaluation, and control of as related to the areas of environmental and occupational noise.

Recent standards activity is highlighted by the adoption of ANSI S12.68 -2007 Methods of Estimating Effective A-Weighted Sound Pressure Levels when Hearing Protectors are Worn. This standard specifies three methods, in ascending order of complexity of use and potential accuracy, for the estimation of the sound pressure levels that are effective when a hearing protector is worn.

There has also been work surrounding several active working groups. Working Group 38 is developing a document concerning the noise labeling of products under chair R. Hellweg. WG 41, under the guidance of co-chairs L. Feingold and B. Brooks is addressing model community noise ordinances. Also, Working Group 44 is proposing new standards regarding speech privacy in healthcare facilities. Each working group meets on an annual or semi-annual basis are reports back to the S12 Committee. To participate in any of these efforts, please contact the INCE Standards chair.

Structural Acoustics, Chair: Steve Hambric and Steve Conlon
This newly formed technical committee is focused on the vibration of structures leading to noise generation in buildings and communities and includes prediction and measurement of ground borne vibration from ground transportation systems, rattle and vibration induced by aircraft, and  design of structures and construction methodologies to mittigate transmission of vibration and subsequent noise generation.