Bringing free weight areas under acoustic control

Abstract

Fitness studios that are housed in office, residential, or hotel buildings are repeatedly confronted with the problem that the strong vibrations caused by dropping weights lead to noise and vibrations in the entire building or even cause damage to existing ceiling structures. For these situations, Getzner has developed the g-fit Shock Absorb system with low construction heights and low weight. This is achieved through several layers of polyurethane foam materials including high damping or high elasticity sub-layer. The impact is isolated, the drop energy is absorbed by the material and dangerous rebound of the weights (dumbbell, barbell, kettlebells, etc.) is prevented. But the best flooring system can hardly be used without a proper prognosis of the isolation effect and the achieved sound pressure level in adjacent rooms. This paper is about the development of a prognosis tool that allows to predict the sound pressure level as a function of the impact energy, the type of weight at gym, and the ceiling mass for all g-fit Shock Absorb floor coverings. The extensive drop tests as well as the evaluation and the development of a prediction function is described in detail and explained by examples.