Improving the airborne sound insulation properties of vacuum insulating glazing using dissimilar pane thickness and a laminated pane: experimental results

Abstract

Vacuum insulating glazing (VIG) is a relatively new glazing technology that was first developed primarily for its thermal insulation properties. This research aims to continue a preceding study about the acoustic performance of VIG and to analyse the effects of dissimilar thickness and additional damping to the sound insulation performance of VIG. In this research, the airborne sound insulation performance of VIG is examined with theoretical and experimental approaches. Sound insulation performance was measured using the field sound intensity method for 5 configurations of VIG. Measurements were well-predicted by theory at low frequencies, where it is mostly governed by the mass-law with additional corrections. Sound insulation performance was heavily affected by the coincidence dip, and using dissimilar thickness in the VIG does not alleviate the problem. Additional damping affects the coincidence behaviour of the VIG, shifting the critical frequency and increases the sound insulation performance at and above the critical frequency with improvements up to 9 dB.