Scientific news from division 1

Within the scope of the energy transition, large-scale nuclear and fossil-operated power stations, which used to be located at a large distance to existing residential areas, are increasingly being replaced by energy converters. These are smaller, are operated in a decentralized way and are located close to residential areas. Operating such facilities often causes noise emission in the infrasonic...

At the end of August 2022, the online workshop "Round & Established 2022" of the participants of the "Si-Trust" took place. The workshop included 14 groups and 14 time zones and therefore met for 4 hours each on two days. The contributions from 11 of the participating institutes described the experience in handling Si-spheres provided to them by PTB after the "Round & Ready" workshop (2016). Due...

In standardization, requirements for products, services and processes, but also socially important reference values such as upper limits and guideline values are developed and defined. Since acoustic issues are always very close to practical requirements, standardization plays an essential role, and the “Sound” department is highly involved in many standardization committees. An international...

Within the European-funded project Infra-AUV the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR, Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources) and PTB cooperate in the field of calibration of seismometers. These vibration measuring instruments are used by the BGR to monitor compliance with the nuclear test ban treaty within an international network.

The Rudolf-Martin-Ehrenurkunde is awarded annually by the DIN/VDI Standards Committee Acoustics, Noise Control and Vibration Engineering (NALS) for special achievements in standardisation. It is dedicated to the former Head of the Mechanics and Acoustics Division at PTB and Founding Chair of NALS Prof. Rudolf Martin. This year it returns to PTB in a way when it was awarded to Dr. Thomas Fedtke,...

A high-frequency personal sound exposure meter (High-Frequency and Ultrasound Personal Exposimeter - HiFUSPEx) newly developed in department 1.6 possesses the measuring capabilities of a “real” sound level meter, but as a fully portable device it can record person’s individual ultrasonic noise exposure.

The prototype of the digital calibration certificate (DCC) has been further developed. A major release has been made to the DCC. It offers extended possibilities to document e. g. formula support and conformity statements. The new version 3.0.0 became an open-source project under the Lesser General Public License (LGPL) v3.

The intense discussions on noise disturbance, particularly in the vicinity of wind turbines, raise the public awareness to infrasound (sound with frequencies < 20 Hz). Of major importance, thereby, is the knowledge about infrasound perception under realistic conditions, e.g. with binaural hearing. The monaural and binaural loudness perception of infrasound was investigated in a study with...

The aim of the EMPIR project 20IND13 "Sustainable advanced flow meter calibration for the transport sector" (SAFEST) is to further develop flow measurements for the transport sector in order to enable reliable, metrologically secured measurements of fuel consumption in road and maritime transport.

Like everywhere else, time does not stand still for water meters. The requirements change, be it due to technological progress or changes in drinking water consumption. The question is whether measurement accuracy is still given under the changed conditions. Metrological infrastructure and procedures to address this question were discussed at a workshop organized by the EMPIR-project MetroWaMet.