Valiação da perda de transmissão sonora em paredes externas de light steel frame

Abstract

Environmental noise at high levels and inappropriate construction techniques used in conventional buildings in Brazil claim for a transition to better construction systems. Recently the Brazilian standard NBR 15575:2013 established for the first time parameters and criteria for residential building performance. In standard minimum requirements for sound insulation are given, for example for external walls and roof structures. This way it is of fundamental importance to have sound transmission loss data for diferente types of such elements at hand. Taking into account that there is very little information on the sound transmission loss of external walls of the light steel frame (LSF) type measurements of sound insulation of different vertical external LSF walls typically used in Brazil were carried out. Eighteen different LSF walls were mounted in the sound transmission measurement chamber of the Federal University of Santa Maria and measurements were carried out in accordance with ISO 10140:2010. Sound insulation was characterized by means of the sound reduction index R, the weighted sound reduction index Rw and the sound transmission class, making it possible to compare the sound insulation of the LSF walls with data from the literature. The LSF walls under investigation in this study used different materials such as OSB panels, cement boards, plaster boards, Smartside panels, PVC panels, XPS panels and magnesium oxide boards for the outer face. The influence of resilient channels and sponge tape, placed between the outer face and the metalic studes, were also evaluated. The sound insulation of the diferente LSF walls were found to be 43 dB ≤ Rw ≤ 50 dB and 45 dB ≤ STC ≤ 52 dB. Within the LSF walls measured the one which used magnesium oxide boards on the outer face showed to have the highest weight sound reduction index (Rw = 50 dB). Resilient channels, fabricated especially for this study, and sponge tape were able to provide an increase of Rw and STC up to 5 dB compared to the same wall without this resilient elements, and provide better sound insulation especially for frequencies higher than 400 Hz. From the data it can be concluded that LSF walls are more efficient regarding the sound insulation than single walls of the same surface mass and in some cases even better than single walls of superior surface mass, such as walls made of massive brick or concrete blocks.