Acoustical engineering

Unwanted noise can have significant impacts on animal and human health and well-being, reduce attainment by students in schools, and cause hearing loss.

[5] In other industries, acoustic engineers might: design automobile sound systems; investigate human response to sounds, such as urban soundscapes and domestic appliances; develop audio signal processing software for mixing desks, and design loudspeakers and microphones for mobile phones.

The listed subdisciplines are loosely based on the PACS (Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme) coding used by the Acoustical Society of America.

[11] Architectural acoustics can be about achieving good speech intelligibility in a theatre, restaurant or railway station, enhancing the quality of music in a concert hall or recording studio, or suppressing noise to make offices and homes more productive and pleasant places to work and live.

The term "electroacoustics" is also used to describe a set of electrokinetic effects that occur in heterogeneous liquids under influence of ultrasound.

[16][17] Environmental acoustics is concerned with the control of noise and vibrations caused by traffic, aircraft, industrial equipment, recreational activities and anything else that might be considered a nuisance.

[13] Recent research work has put a strong emphasis on soundscapes, the positive use of sound (e.g. fountains, bird song), and the preservation of tranquility.

"Psychoacoustics seeks to reconcile acoustical stimuli and all the scientific, objective, and physical properties that surround them, with the physiological and psychological responses evoked by them.

[22] Ultrasonics deals with sound waves in solids, liquids and gases at frequencies too high to be heard by the average person.

Applications include sonar to locate submerged objects such as submarines, underwater communication by animals, observation of sea temperatures for climate change monitoring, and marine biology.

[24] Acoustic engineers working on vibration study the motions and interactions of mechanical systems with their environments, including measurement, analysis and control.

[27] Acoustical engineers apply these fundamental concepts, along with mathematical analysis, to control sound for a variety of applications.