Use of viscoelastic polymer sheet as an acoustic control treatment in ceramic tiles to improve sound insertion loss

Abstract

Ceramic tiles are commonly used in non-structural components of a building such as walls, partitions, floors, and roofs. However, due to their high surface hardness and density, ceramic tiles are not an ideal soundproof material. To improve the sound properties, this study introduced the use of a viscoelastic polymer sheet (VPS) as an acoustic control treatment. The VPS was attached to ceramic tiles in 4 different patterns: X, Cross, Corner, and Strip. The ceramic tiles with VPS were tested for the damping property and sound insertion loss (IL) and then compared to the ones without VPS. Results indicated that the attachment of VPS improved the damping property of the ceramic tiles. All tiles with VPS exhibited higher damping loss indexes than the ones with no VPS. The highest damping loss index of 0.017–0.018 was observed in the specimens with VPS in X and Cross patterns. In the case of IL, the performance of all ceramic tiles was indifferent when tested at sound frequencies smaller than 1000 Hz. At the sound frequencies above 1000 Hz, the best performance was observed in the specimen with VPS in the Cross pattern, followed by X, Strip, and Corner patterns, respectively. This concluded that the use of VPS can improve the damping property of a ceramic tile which also leads to the improvement in sound insertion loss.