The improvement of a simple theoretical model for the prediction of the sound insulation of double leaf walls

This paper presents a revised theory for predicting the sound insulation of double leaf cavity walls that removes an approximation, which is usually made when deriving the sound insulation of a double leaf cavity wall above the critical frequencies of the wall leaves due to the airborne transmission across the wall cavity. This revised theory is also used as a correction below the critical frequencies of the wall leaves instead of a correction due to Sewell [(1970). J. Sound Vib. 12, 21-32]. It is found necessary to include the "stud" borne transmission of the window frames when modeling wide air gap double glazed windows. A minimum value of stud transmission is introduced for use with resilient connections such as steel studs. Empirical equations are derived for predicting the effective sound absorption coefficient of wall cavities without sound absorbing material. The theory is compared with experimental results for double glazed windows and gypsum plasterboard cavity walls with and without sound absorbing material in their cavities. The overall mean, standard deviation, maximum, and minimum of the differences between experiment and theory are -0.6 dB, 3.1 dB, 10.9 dB at 1250 Hz, and -14.9 dB at 160 Hz, respectively.