Structure-borne sound sources in buildings – Estimating the uncertainty of source properties and installed power from interlaboratory test results

Abstract

A low immission due to structure-borne sound sources is a major component of the acoustic quality inside buildings. After many years of research, methods have been standardised to characterise such sources (EN 15657) and to predict their impact in buildings (EN 12354-5). This contribution is dedicated to the question what the uncertainty of the source descriptors and the predicted installed sound power is. To answer this question, an interlaboratory test with an artificial source was performed. Altogether seven laboratories participated, and estimates for the uncertainties of the source quantities could be deduced from the measurement results. Additionally, measurements were performed with a standardised structure-borne sound source, the ISO tapping machine, by all participating laboratories. The measured source quantity for this source turned out to be in good agreement with the theoretically predicted values thereby validating this theoretical prediction.