Application: Airborne Acoustic Isolation

Prof. Livio Mazzarella

Energy Department
Acoustic Airborne Isolation : text 2

1. Calculate the sound reduction index of each components

2. Verify the passive acoustic requirements of buildings
1. Calculate the apparent sound reduction index between rooms A
and B from the transmission loss of each components
2. Calculate the weighted standardized level difference of the façade
for room A

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Geometric characteristics 3

Room A

Units: cm

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

2. Transmission loss (sound reduction index) 4
of each components
Calculate the sound reduction index of each components
finalized to airborne noise between rooms A and B and façade
weighted standardized level difference room A
6

5 4

B
1 3

2 Corner

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Top section 5

Section from the top 1 - floor

3 – façade
Flanking transmission elements
5 – internal wall
6 – internal wall
Rigid cross junction
6
C Rigid T junction

Direct transmission 3

B 5 1 A

Rigid T junction
2
Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia
 Side section 6

Side section

Flanking transmission elements

Rigid cross junction
4 Rigid cross junction

1 - floor
2 – façade
4 – ceiling 6
6 – internal wall A
2

Rigid cross junction

1 Rigid cross junction

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

 7
Composite Transmission Loss

The transmission loss of a partition consisting of separated

components arranged in parallel is defined as:
 N   N 
  Si  
 1   i =1

   Si

i =1
Rm = 10  log10   = 10  log10  N  = 10  log  
tm 
10 − Ri
 St   N 
 i i   
10
 
S i 10
 i =1   i =1 
where
Si is the area of the surface of the i-th component
ti is the coefficient of transmission the i-th component
arranged in parallel
Ri is the simple transmission loss of the i-th component
arranged in parallel

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Transmission loss of walls 8

Wall of hollow brick blocks of lightened paste

Facade (honeycomb) of 25 cm thickness (25x30x19),
drilling =45% with vertical holes, plastered with 1.5
cm thick mortar M3 on both sides.
Walls

Transmission loss [dB]

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Transmission loss of windows 9

Windows laminated sheet consisting of 2 slabs, 6 mm

and 4 mm thick, joined together by the PVB
layer 1.52 mm thick

Transmission loss [dB]

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Transmission loss of internal walls 10

Sound Reduction Index/ Single Wall / Brick(UNIVERSITA

FERRARA):
Rw = 18,1 log10(m') + 2,9 [experimental relation 2]
Walls made of solid or hollow brick, plastered.
Requirement: mass per unit area: 80 ≤ m' ≤ 500 kg/m2

▪ Areic mass 160 kg/m2

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Floor/ceiling transmission loss 11

▪ Both 260 mm concrete slab

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Door transmission loss 12

To estimate the sound insulation of the door (multi-layer:

steel frame with steel- 5 cm rock wool – steel composite
panel), proceed as follows DOOR
Steel
▪ calculate the transmission loss at normal r 0.002 m
incidence of the steel plate as: th 7 500 kg/m3
15 kg/m2

( )
m'

Rn = 20  log 10 m*  f − 42 ,5 dB r
th
Rock wool
0.05
70
m
kg/m3
m' 3.5 kg/m2
▪ calculate the transmission loss at diffuse
incidence of the steel plate as:
Rd = Rn − 10  log10 (0,23  Rn ) dB
▪ calculate the door total transmission loss (in
series) with the formula in the next slide for a
system consisting wall-absorbing material-wall

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Double-wall with the space filled with 13
absorbing material

Estimation of sound insulation for double wall with an absorbent material

inside the cavity (case b), when R1 e R2 are separately CALCOLATED
for diffuse incidence :

R  20 log10 (m1 + m2 ) f  − 47
2
f  f0
3
R  10 2 f0 3  f  f 0
R  R1 + R2 + 20 log10 (d  f ) − 29 f 0  f  f1

m1 m2 R  R1 + R2 + 6 f  f1

1 1 1  c 343
f 0 = 60  
 +  f1 = =
d  m1 m2  2d 2d
where
d = cavity thickness [m]
Warnock ACC, Fasold W. Sound insulation: airborne and impact. Encyclopedia of acoustics, New York: Wiley-Interscience, 1997. Vol. 3:
pp. 1129-61.

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

Terms of adaptation and weighted 14
sound reduction indexs
• Calculate the terms of adaptation C and Ctr for each for
each wall

• Calculate the weighted sound reduction index for all

components
Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia
 Airborne Sound Insulation Indices – ISO 717 15
Xw a 500 Hz

 
Curve of reference values for airborne sound, one-third-octave bands

Y =  max 0; Yref − Ymeas i  32

Key
X frequency in Hz
Y reference value
i

sum of unfavourable
deviations is as
large as possible,
but not more than
32,0 dB,
measurement in
one-third-octave
bands
The same procedure
applies to all of the
characteristic
Airborne Sound
Insulation Indices

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

 Airborne Sound Insulation Indices – ISO 717 16
Xw at 500 Hz: spectra adaptation terms

Spectra adaptation terms, Cj, in decibel, shall be calculated with the specific
sound spectra j from the following equation:
C j = X Aj − X w
where:
j is the subscript for the sound spectra N° 1 e 2;
Xw is the Insulation Index calculated from R, Dn or DnT values;
XAj Lij − X i
X Aj = −10  log10 10 10 dB where:
i
▪ i is the subscript for the one-third-octave bands 100 Hz to 3150 Hz or the octave bands 125 Hz to 2000 Hz;
▪ Lij are the levels of the sound level spectra to calculate the adaptation terms at the frequency i for the
spectrum j;
▪ Xi is the transmission loss Ri, or apparent transmission loss, or the normalized level difference Dn,i, or
standardized level difference DnT,i, at the measuring frequency i, given to one decimal place.
Calculate the quantity, XAj, with sufficient accuracy and round the result to an integer.2) The
resulting spectrum adaptation term is an integer by definition and shall be identified in
accordance with the spectrum used, as follows:
C when calculated with spectrum No. 1 (A-weighted pink noise);
Ctr when calculated with spectrum No. 2 (A-weighted urban traffic noise).

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

 Airborne Sound Insulation Indices – ISO 717 17

Sound level spectra to calculate the adaptation terms

Sound level spectra to calculate the spectrum adaptation terms for one-third octave Sound level spectra to calculate the spectrum adaptation terms for octave band values
band values Key
Key 1 spectrum No. 1 to calculate C
1 spectrum No. 1 to calculate C 2 spectrum No. 2 to calculate Ctr
2 spectrum No. 2 to calculate Ctr X Frequency in HZ
X Frequency in HZ Y Lij in dB
Y Lij in dB

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

 Airborne Sound Insulation Indices – ISO 717 18

Frequency reference values and sound spectra in one-third-octave bands and

octave bands reference values to calculate the spectrum adaptation
terms C e Ctr.
Sound Level, Li j, [dB]
Frequency Reference Values[dB] Frequency spectrum N° 1 to calculate C spectrum N° 2 to calculate Ctr
one-third- octave one-third- one-third-
Hz Hz octave band octave band
octave band band octave band octave band
100 33
100 -29 -20
125 36 36
125 -26 -21 -20 -14
160 39
160 -23 -18
200 42
200 -21 -16
250 45 45
250 -19 -14 -15 -10
315 48
315 -17 -14
400 51
400 -15 -13
500 52 52
500 -13 -8 -12 -7
630 53
630 -12 -11
800 54
800 -11 -9
1 000 55 55
1 000 -10 -5 -8 -4
1 250 56
1 250 -9 -9
1 600 56
1 600 -9 -10
2 000 56 56
2 000 -9 -4 -11 -6
2 500 56
2 500 -9 -13
3 150 56
3 150 -9 -15
Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia
Relevant spectrum adaptation term 19

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

 3. Verify the passive acoustic 20
requirements of buildings

The required indices are:

▪ R’w : Weighted Apparent Sound Reduction Index, which is:

– R’(500 Hz) apparent transmission loss that is obtained
at 500 Hz from the reference curve after repositioning
to respect the unfavourable deviations limitation
▪ D2m,n,T,w Facade Weighted Standardized Level Difference
Index, which is :
– D2m,n,T (500 Hz) Facade Weighted Standardized Level
Difference that is obtained at 500 Hz from the
reference curve after repositioning to respect the
unfavourable deviations limitation

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

 R’w Airborne sound insulation between
- 21
rooms
Calculation sequence:
▪ determine the weighted sound reduction index of the
elements: Rs,w. RF,w. Rf,w;
▪ determine the vibration reduction index for each junction and
path: KFf; KFd; KDf;
▪ determine the total weighted sound reduction index
improvement for the separating element: RDd,w;
▪ determine the total weighted sound reduction index
improvement for each flanking path: RFf,w; RFd,w; RDf,w;
▪ calculate RDd,w the weighted sound reduction index for direct
transmission as:
RDd,w = Rs , w + RDd,w
Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia
 R’w Airborne sound insulation between
- 22
rooms
▪ calculate RFf,w with
RF , w + R f , w  Ss 
RFf , w = + RFf , w + K Ff + 10 log10  
2 I I 
 0 f 
▪ calculate RDf,w with
Rs , w + R f , w  Ss 
RDf , w = + RDf , w + K Df + 10 log10  
2 I I 
 0 f 
▪ calculate RFd,w with
RF , w + Rs , w  Ss 
RFd , w = + RFd , w + K Fd + 10 log10  
2 I I 
 0 f 
▪ calculate R’w with
 − R10Dd , w N − RFf , w N − RDf , w N − RFd , w

Rw = −10  log10 10 + 10 10
+ 10 10
+ 10 10

 F = f =1 f =1 F =1 
Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia
 Weighted Standardized level difference of 23
a façade D2m,nT,w
Calculation sequence:
▪ determine the weighted sound reduction index of each
façade elements: Rw,i;
▪ determine the weighted small element normalized level
difference for each i-elements: Dne,w,i;
▪ calculate R’w the weighted sound reduction index for the
façade as:
 N Si − RW ,i N
A
− Dne , w ,i

Rw = −10 log10  10 10 +  10 10  − K
0

 i =1 S i =1 S 

▪ determine the weighted level difference due to facade shape,

Lfs,w

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia

 Weighted Standardized level difference of 24
a façade D2m,nT,w

▪ calculate the Weighted Standardized level difference of a

facade as:
 V 
D2 m, nT , w = Rw + L fs , w + 10 log10  
 0 
6T S

Prof. Livio Mazzarella - Dipartimento di Energia