WP1: Objective assessment of sound insulation performance:
The joint measurement technology, using classical microphone methods, laser Doppler scanning vibrometry, and accelerometer grid measurements will allow for a fully reliable assessment of sound insulation properties of building elements from 50Hz to 5000Hz, covering the full relevant range of the audible part of the spectrum. The different approaches will have been cross-validated on the basis of masonry walls, wooden panel assemblies, External Thermal Insulation Composite Systems (ETICS) and wooden noise barriers.
WP2: Subjective assessment of sound insulation performance:
By the end of this project, we will have assessed, by performing listening tests, whether (improvements of) acoustic insulation features are audible. This will allow to verify if the efforts in innovation and materials are spent in the most sustainable way. The project will also have yielded a novel single number rating (SNR)‘Rmod’ that, according to listening tests and a to theoretical considerations, which has a very good correspondence with subjective Loudness perception, substantially better than other single number ratings such as Rw and Rliving.
WP3: Sustainable product innovation
Besides the degree of audibility of differences in acoustic insulation quality mentioned above, also the value as such that people give to acoustic comfort is of great importance when taking decisions concerning priorities in investments in R&D or when choosing between different products. In view of that, an important axis of the project concerns the development and implementation of a questionnaire, which tries to probe people’s priorities when judging their daily life comfort and when considering their priorities when moving to another place or when to deciding on renovation investments. The roll-out of this questionnaire, by sending an online link to the social network of people in the network and via the PAPABUILD website
http://papabuild.eu/questionnaire/(se abrirá en una nueva ventana) is ongoing. By the end of the project, responses of a large number of people will be available, allowing to assess people's sensitivity to acoustic comfort in their overall comfort assessment. Also, an analysis will be available on the importance and compatibility of different aspects of requirements of building elements (acoustic, thermal, fire safety, material cost, recycling cost, ecological sustainability, ...) that relate to their sustainable design and production.
