May-June '25 Bulletin for IOA Members

by Nicky Rogers, Bulletin Editor

The dramatic cover for the May/June 2025 issue of Acoustics Bulletin signifies a major IOA milestone as it displays the armorial bearings recently granted to the Institute by the College of Arms ‒ the final step in completing the petition to His Majesty the King for the Institute’s Royal Charter. On page 8 Chris Turner describes the significance of each individual emblem used in the coat of arms and the long hours of thought that have gone into its design to best reflect the purpose of the IOA and the diverse work of its members.

Apart from all the regulars, the May/June 2025 issue includes some significant articles that you should try not to flick past:

• Mike Lotinga’s back again – this time with a technical article on a practical approach to predicting flow-induced sound from duct termination grilles in railway tunnel ventilation systems. It’s a testing piece and very complex from a proof-reader’s POV. This shouldn’t worry you ‒ there’s no reason why you should be concerned about all the graft that goes on behind the scenes at the editor’s desk, but this was a humdinger and endless thanks go to Mike for his patience during the amends process.
• The IOA has run two competitions each year since 2021: one for primary school-aged children and one for secondary school-aged children. As you’ll see on page 18, this year’s competition is for older children and young people (aged 14-25) and has a noticeably different feel, so if you have young people in your life, do encourage them to enter.
• What are your thoughts on the proposals to revise the residential design aspects of BS 8233? On page 30 Jack Harvie-Clark and Ben Fennech reveal the results of the questionnaire that they masterminded to try to understand the perception of those industry people who have taken a deep dive into the proposals to get to grips with all the detail.
• The research article (always fascinating) on page 28 is by Mostafa Ranjbar, who explains how learning from the naturally occurring architectural cellular structures of woodpeckers’ beaks, dragonfly wings, bones and trees help to develop lightweight materials for noise and vibration mitigation applications in aerospace and automotive applications.
• We say goodbye to Angelo Farina, Professor of Environmental Technical Physics at the University of Parma, who died in March. Ludovico Ausiello, Filippo Fazi and Lamberto Tronchin each write of the way that Professor Farina influenced their careers and lives.

There’s plenty more, but if you feel there are gaps in Acoustics Bulletin and you’d like to see articles on other subjects, please contact the editor, Nicky Rogers, at nickyr@warnersgroup.co.uk

Just to remind you about our technical articles. Although they are not peer reviewed, they all go through a rigorous internal checking process via the IOA Publications Committee and their panel of volunteer experts. This is intended to highlight any discrepancies in the articles or areas that may need clarification, which are then referred back to the authors for amendments.  

Members can access the latest copy by going to: https://www.ioa.org.uk/publications/acoustics-bulletin

Non-members can access Acoustics Bulletin back issues more than 12 months old at the same URL.