Development of standardized impact sources for laboratory measurement of sound transmission through lightweight walls

Constructing housing by using lightweight walls is still a trend, and peopl e are skeptical about the sound of such walls. Following the result of a qu estionnaire survey it was found that impact sound through lightweight walls is the fourth annoying noise source in Taiwan. Since there is no standard method of measuring impact sound through walls, this study looks at the pos sibility of developing a standardized impact source for measuring impact so und in a laboratory, Therefore various impacters were designed to relate ce rtain impact sources to real life situations. The standardized impactor des ign is designed by comparing the characteristics of the real-life impactor with that of the designed impacters. The results of this study shows that t here are two classifications of impacters to be considered. A steel ball of 50 mm in diameter is regarded as a hard impactor, and, a silicon ball of 1 00 mm in diameter is a soft one. A system for measuring impact sound throug h lightweight walls in the laboratory is also proposed. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.