An Experimental Study and Sensitivity Analysis of Design Parameters of Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Roofs for Rain Noise Reduction

Building integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) roof performance in different types of buildings has attracted the attention of architects and engineers in recent years—sound reduction of lightweight buildings is a typical scenario. Laboratory experiments with artificial rain (rainfall intensity: 2 mm/min) were conducted to investigate the sound insulation performance of a lightweight BIPV roof; in addition, sensitivity analysis was conducted for five design parameters, including floor area, room height, length to width ratio of room (LWR), air temperature and atmospheric pressure intensity (310 cases in total). The results show that the A-weighting sound pressure level (LIA) ranges from 18.25 dB to 29.01 dB, with LWR having the greatest effect (decrease of 10.76 dB) on rain noise reduction and air temperature having the least effect (decrease of 0.70 dB). The data and analysis presented in this study can provide a reference for the performance evaluation of BIPV technology, so as to create a healthy and comfortable indoor acoustic environment through parameter optimization design.