Abstract
The difficulties in the implementation of present criteria to control both airborne and impact noises in buildings have given rise to many proposals to simplify the current criteria. Former criteria have been based on the concept of insulation of building elements both in the laboratory and in the field (transmission loss, T.L.; isolation, D; reduction index, R; apparent reduction index, R′; etc.). However, insulation does not guarantee the desired isolation or needed ‘privacy’ in present-day construction. In recent years many efforts have been directed towards single number measurements and indices. Our own proposal uses (a) Airborne isolation level: the source is an adjustable power pink noise stabilised source with a range of 125 Hz–2 kHz in the source room, which generates a 90 dB(A) level in the receiving room, normalised to a source room absorption of A = 10 m2; measurement is carried out in minimum background noise conditions by reading the sound level in dB(A) and finding the average sound level, which should not exceed 45 ± 3 dB(A). This means that an isolation of 42–48 dB(A) is required for approval of the inspected building. (b) Impact level: the source is a single grilon hammer rotating at 120 rpm and weighing 200 g. This is applied at the centre of the source room floor and the receiving room level should not exceed 60 + 3 dB(A). Our field measurements encourage us to believe that our proposal will be useful for the future effective control of noise in buildings.
Published Version
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call