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Test campaign: Stravifloor & Stravilink on CLT
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Mass timber solutions, including cross-laminated timber (CLT), can be an excellent substitute for more traditional buildings with high carbon footprints and very stiff and heavy building materials when some of their inherent properties aren’t required. While CLT has many advantages as a sustainable building material over traditional building materials, it can also pose some unique acoustical challenges. To measure airborne sound reduction and impact noise isolation of lightweight floating floor systems and confirm that CLT-assemblies can provide satisfactory sound insulation, CDM Stravitec conducted a test campaign at Buildwise, the former Belgian Building Research Institute.
During this campaign, were tested:
- Different types of isolators, including discrete bearings with various thicknesses and/or different void depths (entirely filled with insulation material);
- Resilient mats and strips placed between the CLT slab;
- Different plywood, particle and cementitious boards (with and without the use of the well-known constrained layer damping technique, as well as gypsum topping).
The first campaign results are gathered in the Technical Bulletin - “Laboratory measurements of lightweight floating floor systems on cross-laminated timber (CLT) slabs”.
But we wanted to know more…
One of the most desired aspects of mass timber construction is the ability to leave a building’s structure exposed as a finish, which creates the need for asymmetric assemblies; the main reason our first test campaign focused on floor-ceiling assemblies where the acoustic component was installed on top of the assembly.
However, in some countries, the wood ceiling cannot be exposed, as this is imposed by other codes that are not acoustics-related.
Ceilings might not always be visually appealing, especially when you can expose a timber structure instead, but they have several acoustic design functions that can lead to important cost savings, such as controlling not only airborne and impact sound insulation but also sound flanking (above partitions, via building services and structural penetrations or structural elements), sound reverberation and noise of building services hung from the soffits.
Test Campaign: Second Phase
The main goals of this complementary study were:
- Studying the impact of the thickness of CLT slab on the system’s performance;
- Studying the impact of acoustical suspended ceiling with resilient hangers and insulation material in the void in comparison with non-acoustical suspended ceiling (tested in the first test campaign);
- Identify the impact of an acoustic treatment strictly from below a bare CLT slab.
To present the findings of this study, we have compiled an addendum to the original technical bulletin.
Get your copy
Fill the form below and get the Technical Bulletin Addendum 'Additional Laboratory Measurements of Lightweight Floating Floors and Acoustic Ceilings on Cross-Laminated Timber (CLT) Slabs delivered straight to your inbox.
Did you miss the initial Technical Bulletin?
If you missed the Technical Bulletin of the first test campaign, it summarizes the key findings of an extensive test campaign studying the acoustical performance (airborne sound reduction and impact noise isolation) of lightweight Stravifloor systems in combination with cross-laminated timber slabs.