Some practical aspects of the prediction of structure-borne sound caused by house-hold equipment

Sound levels in rooms due to service equipment in the building can be an important reason for disturbance and more so in light weight building structures. Though the recently published draft standard prEN 12354-5 gives a framework for the prediction of the structure-borne sound as caused by this type of sources, there is still a lot to be studied and developed. That is certainly the case for light weight building structures. Some possibilities to simplify the indicated models have been studied and experimental data has been gathered for house hold equipment, taking a washing machine as an example, applied both in a 'heavy' and in a 'light weight' building. Various possibilities to apply substitution methods to characterise such a source as structure-borne sound source have been tried and compared.