The effect of density on impact sound insulation of the expanded polystrene (EPS) block used as filler in one way hollow core slab in dwellings

Abstract

The current international standards and governmental regulations stipulate maximum impact sound insulation on construction slabs of buildings to increase acoustical comfort of interiors of dwellings as mentioned by Cost Action TU 0901:2014 study. In Turkey, the most common slab construction is one way hollow core slab with EPS filler. However, according to the feedback given by users who live in multi storey dwellings impact sound insulation of expanded polystyrene used construction slabs of dwellings is more than acceptable values. In the literature, there is not any information about impact sound insulation performance of one way hollow core slab with EPS filler and the effects of EPS density differences on impact sound so a comparative study on impact sound insulation of the one-way hollow core slab with EPS filler was conducted. The study aimed to determine what is impact sound insulation performance of expanded polystyrene fillers in one way hollow core slab system and the effect of density difference of EPS fillers in one way hollow core systems used in dwellings. The study has also highlighted the importance of missing impact sound isolation standards and regulations in Turkey. The research was based on TS EN ISO 10140-3:2011 laboratory measurement of impact sound insulation of building elements and the data collected was analyzed according to TS EN ISO 717-2:2013. A sample one way hollow core slab system which is used in real life constructions was designed and built with 16 kg/m3 and 10 kg/ m3 EPS fillers. The results showed that one way hollow core slab with EPS fillers demonstrate very low impact sound insulation performance when compared with recommended values, standards and regulations accepted by many European countries. In addition, it was observed that the impact sound insulation performance of 10 kg/m3 expanded polystyrene filler in one way hollow core slab was better than the performance of 16 kg/ m3 EPS filler.