Characterisation Testing of Floating Floor systems under Impact Conditions
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Adam Fox; Doug Valerio
- Source
- INTER-NOISE and NOISE-CON Congress and Conference Proceedings. 265:6645-6652
- Subject
- Language
- ISSN
- 0736-2935
Characterising the nature of vibration produced by impact events from sporting activities remains a challenge. The variables of the impactor, isolation measures and response of the supporting structure inherently make this and prediction of resultant noise levels a significant challenge. This paper presents research into the performance of floating floor systems. Under several excitation events such as weight drops and treadmill activity, the behaviour of the floating floor was characterised through generation of a validated finite element model. The insertion loss of the system was confirmed through extensive testing for a wide range of typical gymnasium activities. The effect of floor dampers and use of covering layers was also investigated. This paper presents these results which provide a validated understanding of how varying the nature of the impact generating activity affects floating floor insertion loss and how the floating slab responds dynamically to impact. This information provides data suitable for extrapolation to other installations, which is highly sought by industry to predict the implication of gymnasia installations.