Uncertainties in predicting structure-borne sound power input into buildings

Abstract

There has been a steady development of methods of measurement and prediction of structure-borne noise in buildings, particularly over the last two decades. In proposing and evaluating these methods, a major consideration has been the likely trade-off between accuracy and simplicity. Structure-borne sound transmission is a more complicated process than airborne sound transmission, but practitioners seek methods of prediction for the former, which are as straightforward as for the latter. In this paper a description is given of a study of multi-contact sources in buildings. The study concentrates on measurement and calculation procedures for sources and calculation procedures for receiver structures, particularly lightweight building elements. Although the study is not exhaustive, the findings point to the limitations of simplified methods, specifically the uncertainties likely as a result of reducing the data sets and computational effort, and the discrepancies resulting from simplifying assumptions.

Recent advances in building acoustics: An overview of prediction methods and their applications

“…Mayr and Gibbs [113] developed an approximation method to predict the point and transfer mobility of lightweight, point-connected ribbed plates. In later work [114], Gibbs researched a simplified method of predicting structure-borne power from multi-contact sources in buildings. Zu and Mak [115] proposed a method to determine the best mounting positions for isolated vibratory equipment in buildings to minimize the amount of overall structure-borne sound power transmitted from the vibratory equipment to the floor structures.…”