Present legislation imposes very severe acoustic performances. However, very often such strict requirements are unattended, due to the presence of small gaps in envelopes. This is more valid for construction built with mortar and brick walls.
This research topic is finalized to discern the presence of acoustic bridges on buildings facades, that’s to say all those breaks in continuity that could let the sound easily pass from one to the other side of walls, in spite of their small size. Some examples are represented by cracks in the mortar along the boundaries of walls, chases for pipes or cuts for electric boxes. Thanks to the combined use of Finite Element modelling tools and vibrometry analyses, a new methodology targeting to two different purposes is under elaboration: first for localization of acoustic bridges on existing buildings through non destructive analyses; secondly for forecasting evaluation of the influence of acoustic bridges with respect to the overall acoustic performances of walls and direct further interventions.
Working Group
Alberto Giretti, Alessandro Carbonari, Berardo Naticchia, Mario De Grassi, Gianni Cesini (Department of Energetics)