Exploring Acoustical Approach for Pre-screening of Window Assemblies Airtightness Level in an Existing Building

Abstract

Air infiltration plays a significant role in designing and evaluating the performance and air quality of a building. Air leakage through an existing building enclosure can be detected by using experimental measurements, such as blower door test, tracer gas method, and transient approach. Estimating building air permeability through these methods can be expensive, time consuming, and weather reliant. The economical and environmental effect of air infiltration through building envelope requires higher level of research on locating air leakage locations and estimating air infiltration rate through new techniques, such as acoustical methods. In this research, a general review of airtightness detection and quantification method is presented and acoustical techniques are explored more in depth. Due to the significant impact of window systems on the total air infiltration through the building envelope, the correlation between the sound transmission loss and the air permeability through seven window assemblies in an existing building are explored to investigate acoustical method further. In addition, the acoustic air leakage detection method based on the standard ASTM E1186 is instigated. The results reveal the poor correlation between the airtightness of the windows and the acoustical analysis and investigations