Characterisation of mechanical installations in buildings as structure-borne sound sources: Fid-Bau Portal

Characterisation of mechanical installations in buildings as structure-borne sound sources

Spah, M.M. / Gibbs, B.M. / Fischer, H.M.

The standard EN 12354 Part 5 is being developed to allow prediction of the sound generated by active building components found in mechanical services. It is recognised that much of the noise generated by vibrating components transmits as structure-borne sound before radiating as perceived noise in other rooms. However, there are no appropriate laboratory test methods for structure-borne sound sources and therefore there is no reliable input data available for prediction or comparison. The structure-borne sound power of a source can be calculated by considering the mobilities of the source, the receiver and the free velocity or the blocked force of the source at the contact points. This requires a great amount of data. A reception plate method promises a way of reducing the required data set and simplifying data acquisition. The validity of this approach is to be investigated by comparison of the test-rig results with predicted powers obtained by mobility methods. Case studies of the mobility method on a whirlpool bath are presented and indications are given of possible data reductions.