SonicLQ: An Acoustic Method for Locating and Sizing Air Leaks in Building Envelopes

Air leaks in building envelopes account for 20% of building heating and cooling energy in addition to poor acoustic and air quality performance of buildings. Unfortunately, technology to locate and size the air leaks in building envelopes has changed little over the past few decades. Blower doors, thermal cameras, and standard sound transmission techniques all have significant limitations. To overcome many of the limitations, researchers at Argonne National Laboratory have developed SonicLQ, the Sonic Leak Quantifier. SonicLQ is a new acoustic method for locating and sizing individual leaks in envelopes using digital microphone arrays, nearfield acoustic holography, and acoustic signal processing to measure sound transmission through a building envelope and separate sound that comes through air leaks from sound that is transmitted through envelope vibration to locate and size the air leaks. In this presentation, the basic technology and results from laboratory and field testing are presented.