It is usual for air cavities to resonate, such as the cavity within a timber wall. For instance if you blow across the top of a bottle and heard the sound, it sounds much louder; this is the trapped air resonating. In a similar way a hollow wall will also trap air that will resonate. When the wall is vibrated by loud sound such as a neighbour’s loud music of TV, the air in the wall cavity will vibrate just like a drum. Unfortunately this air cavity is another means for sound vibration to travel from one side of the acoustic partition wall to the other. So even though the wall framing may be decoupled, the vibrating air cavity may still transmit some sound through the wall between the wall studs. Acoustic fiberglass insulation will absorb some of this (absorption).
In all instances acoustic Insulation should help the overall sound insulation test result, and should always be installed if possible. Although the vibration reduction is smaller than the other 3 elements it is still very important. The key is to keep the density low, so don’t try to compress or pack the insulation as the vibration may use this to bridge the construction.
So to summarise we have now managed to de-couple and insulated the acoustic wall framing, which has helped to stop much of the vibration, but unfortunately not all of it. So what else can we do? – add mass of course. A full explanation of how mass can help your sound test results can be found in the next blog.
If you require any information on our acoustic design and/or sound test services, please contact us at info@aptsoundtesting.co.uk or call Darren on 07775623464.