Experimental evaluation of the influence of the use of window shades on the acoustic conditioning of workspaces

Acoustic conditioning directly impacts the well-being and productivity of people working in the workplace. In this sense, several solutions are used to treat the environment, such as the use of acoustic ceilings, surface treatment of walls, floors, screens, table dividers, among others. The use of window shades is often necessary to control privacy and/or natural light in the environment, but it is known that their use will have some contribution to acoustic conditioning. On the other hand, as they are not an acoustic material per se, it is rare to find products in these segments that have sound absorption data. The existing data in the relevant bibliographies are very diverse and deal with generic curtains, almost always unrelated to those commercially used in workspaces. Therefore, this research was dedicated to the evaluation of the acoustic parameters of the same room using different types of window shades commercially used in workspaces. The acoustic parameters have been obtained experimentally through in-situ depth. The analyses will make it possible to evaluate the contribution of the use of window shades to acoustic conditioning, as well as to characterise the acoustic performance of different types of window shades commonly used in workspaces.