Andrea Santoni

Sound Transmission between Rooms with Curtain Wall Façades: A Case Study

Curtain walls have reached good performances in terms of façade sound and thermal insulation, as well as solar protection. Nevertheless, the sound insulation performance of the partition between adjoining rooms with continuous curtain wall façades is often reduced by the presence of direct and flanking transmission through the junction with the façade itself. In this work, flanking and direct structural transmissions are analysed with reference to the joints of the mullion of the curtain wall with lightweight plasterboard partitions. Airborne sound insulation and vibration measurements were made in two adjacent rooms affected by the acoustic problems determined by the curtain wall joint. Traditional acoustic measurements, carried out according to EN ISO 16283–1, highlighted problems in sound insulation between rooms, but without any indication on different sound transmission paths through the wall. Vibration measurements were made for every part of the system (frame columns and beams, window panes, plasterboard wall, plasterboard false ceiling, etc.) to better understand the sound transmission paths in these kinds of structures. In this paper the results of this analysis are presented. Moreover, taking into account previous works and measurements made in this research field, different solutions for curtain wall structures are analysed and technical suggestions are given to improve airborne sound insulation between rooms separated by partitions mounted up to metal frames.

Predicting sound radiation efficiency and sound transmission loss of orthotropic cross-laminated timber panels

In the last decades, new materials and new technologies which satisfy sustainability and energy efficiency demands have been developed for the building construction market. Lightweight structures are becoming increasingly popular, but it has been shown that they cannot provide satisfactory sound insulation to meet the regulation requirements. Therefore a proper acoustic treatment needs to be specifically designed, considering both airborne and structure-borne sound sources. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) elements, for example, have had great success in the last twenty years, both in Europe and North America. CLT plates, due to their peculiar sub-structure, very often exhibit an orthotropic behavior: they have different stiffness properties along their two principle directions. In this paper two prediction models to evaluate the radiation efficiency, due to mechanical excitation, and the sound transmission loss of an orthotropic CLT plate are presented. The main purpose of these simplified models is to provi...

Predicting sound radiation and sound transmission in orthotropic cross-laminated timber panels

In the last decades, new materials and new technologies which satisfy sustainability and energy efficiency demands have been developed for the building construction market. Lightweight structures are becoming increasingly popular, but it has been proved that they cannot provide satisfactory sound insulation. Therefore a proper acoustic treatment needs to be specifically designed, considering both airborne and structure-borne sound sources. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) elements, for example, have had great success in the last twenty years, both in Europe and North America. CLT plates, due to their peculiar sub-structure, exhibit an orthotropic behavior; they have different stiffness properties along their two principle directions. This paper investigates prediction models for orthotropic plates designed to evaluate sound radiation due to mechanical excitation, and sound transmission due to acoustic excitation. Particular attention is paid to the influence on sound radiation of non-resonant vibration, or ne...

Noise generated from large construction sites: Measurements and possible mitigations

In this study, the issue of noise arising from the activities of large construction sites is analysed. The problem is particularly significant when the sites are close to protected natural areas or to residential areas and also when the duration of the construction works is very large. The case of the construction of a mobile barrier system, known as the MoSE, for the safeguard of the city of Venice from intruding tidal waters, is here reported. Since the early beginning of the construction activities, in April 2005, noise emission monitoring was conducted in order to evaluate possible effects on the presence of bird communities in the surrounding areas and also to evaluate the noise disturbance in some of the residential buildings close to the sites. During the monitoring activity, it was possible to measure the noise levels, the noise spectra and spectrograms in real-time and occasionally even the audio signal for particular activities was recorded. The analysis of data collected in different periods de...