A correlation between a single number quantity and noise level of real impact sources for floor impact sound

The floor impact sound is one of many uncomfortable noises in apartment houses that can disturb neighboring residents. For floor structure in apartments, resilient materials-applied floating floors have been used and standard impact sources were used for performance evaluation. In particular, bang machines and rubber balls were used to evaluate a low-frequency region. The insulation performance against floor impact sound was analyzed via single number quantity and heavyweight impact sounds were measured at four frequency bandwidths. However, since 63 Hz bandwidth of heavyweight impact sound was characterized by high impact sound level, single number was determined at 63 Hz. Although the single number quantity (Li,Fmax,AW, L′n,AW) is evaluated by considering a certain frequency range, its performance was mainly determined at a specific frequency. It is important to identify a relationship between performance results determined at a specific frequency and noise that occurred due to real impact source. The present study analyzed a correlation between a single number quantity and noise level (dB (A)) due to real impact source (human activity) in order to review the applicability of the single number quantity that evaluated performance of floor structure. The analysis result showed that a correlation between floor structure performance evaluated via the single number quantity and noise level occurred due to real human activity was not significantly high.