Investigation on the flanking transmission of impact sound insulation of floor

Impact sound pressure level of floors depends, as general rule, on direct sound radiated by the floor excited by a standard tapping machine and on flanking transmission of lateral walls. Depending on the kind of junction between the floor and walls of the receiving room, flanking paths can be more or less important. Requirements of laboratory test specimens are not well specified in EN ISO 140 standards, particularly for junctions of the test floor and lateral walls. In this paper measurements performed at DIENCA laboratory are presented in order to evaluate the influence of flanking transmission on impact sound pressure levels of a standard floor and on impact sound reduction level of standard floor with a resilient layer. Measurements are performed on a 14-cm-thick concrete floor in two different conditions: first connected on two sides of the receiving room and then on all four sides. Impact sound pressure levels and vibration levels are analyzed in order to evaluate the contribution of different transmission paths. As the measurements were carried on in the new facility for measurement of the contribution of the flanking transmission, this facility will be exhaustively presented in the paper.