Effects of impact and microphone positions on heavy-weight floor impact sound pressure levels in concrete buildings

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the spatial distribution of heavy-weight impact sound transmitted to a receiving room in 59 households within a concrete residential building. The performance of buildings is generally regulated by single number quantities such as L′iA,Fmax. To enhance performance, it is important to understand the effect of the impact sound pressure level at designated impact positions and microphones. Therefore, this study proposes a method to quantify the impac sound pressure level for determining L′iA,Fmax according to the impact and microphone positions. Analysis of the data revealed that significant similarities in frequency spectra were observed when generating impacts at two positions near the window, in addition to two at the area near the corridor, both of which have similar boundary conditions. The central impact position exhibited the highest contribution at 24.6%, while other positions had contributions of 18.2–19.5%. For the microphone positions, those located at the corners on either side of the window showed contributions of 22.8–23.7%, whereas the remaining positions demonstrated lower contributions of 17.3–18.5%. These results can serve as basic data for developing construction methods to reduce floor impact sound.