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Rating the acoustic privacy of plasterboard party walls

The growing trend towards multi-family dwelling units combined with the predominant use of light construction materials, has brought about an increasing awareness of the need for greater acoustic privacy. Although the total evaluation of acoustic privacy is dependent on many factors, the party wall is generally the most important element in achieving that goal.
The concept of 'masking', with regard to airborne sound transmission, was applied to a privacy model derived from other studies. This model was used to evaluate different plasterboard wall constructions in a series of computer-simulated tests. The method compares the anticipated 'masking' calculated from the single-figure STC rating and from actual Transmission Loss values. Further tests were carried out to evaluate a simplified acoustic measurement using the A-weighted sound level differences of various noise spectra. The validity of this simplified measurement enables its use in the application of a building standardise
results of the different wall data were then evaluated to determine a level of user satisfaction based on predicted subjective response. Comparison of this level with CHHC and other standards, shows the latter to be very marginal values. Some walls were also analysed as to the effect of design and different components on their acoustic performance.
Lastly, the results of the simplified measurement technique indicates the applicability of a general household noise spectrum in evaluating the acoustic privacy between dwelling units. The implementation of this method in conjunction with a Privacy Index is an effective way of specifying a minimum level cf acoustic privacy. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/20509
Date January 1977
CreatorsKho, Alphonse H.
Source SetsUniversity of British Columbia
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, Thesis/Dissertation
RightsFor non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use.

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