Effect of stud dimension and material properties on predicted and tested sound insulation

Abstract

A common wall design is gypsum wall board (GWB) cladding on each side of a row of steel studs, which may or may not include insulation. Steel studs are available in a range of metal thicknesses, dimensions, and structural properties. Most published laboratory testing on these walls uses a small subset of the available stud types, and the acoustical effect of changes to stud parameters has not been completely studied or documented. As a result, theoretical models of stud walls have not been evaluated over the full set of stud parameters. This work is a continuation of previous laboratory testing programs to systematically investigate the acoustical effects of stud properties. This paper analyzes the effects of stud depth and structural properties on third-octave transmission loss values and single-number ratings and investigates the capability of existing models for wall transmission loss to predict performance of walls with an expanded set of stud parameters. Our findings indicate that the parameters currently used to describe stud walls in acoustical test report are not sufficient to characterize the assembly.