Standards Development

Scope

The standard will specify a calculation model to estimate ground borne sound insulation against outdoor ground vibration in terms of the difference between ground surface vibration levels and ground borne sound pressure level inside the building. The calculation will be carried out for frequency bands and could be based on the two quantities defined in XP ISO TS 14837-31, i.e. building coupling loss (insertion loss based on ground vibration levels without and with building) and building vibration transmissibility from building foundation to floors, as well as on the radiation efficiency of the building elements involved. The calculation will give results corresponding to the results from field measurements according to XP ISO TS 14837-31.

The document will describe the principle of the calculation model, list the relevant quantities and define its applications and restrictions. Low frequency vibration (below 16 Hz), which do not generate audible ground borne noise, will be out of scope and won’t be considered in the standard.

Purpose

There is no standard on predicting ground-borne noise generated inside buildings by outdoor ground vibration from railway lines or other ground vibration sources. But prediction methods are required for designing buildings protecting inhabitants against ground borne noise according to national regulations, guidelines or recommendations…. The standard would be similar to existing European standards in building acoustics such as EN ISO 12354-3, which predict airborne sound insulation of buildings against outdoor noise. Technical specification XP ISO 14837-31 (see item 14) gives guidance to field measurements of ground-borne noise (frequency range 16 Hz to 250 Hz) and vibration (from a few Hz) inside buildings, arising from rail operations. It includes two informative annexes relative to characterizing vibration immission to building and to predicting ground-borne noise from building element vibration; however only heavy buildings are considered. These annexes could be checked, probably improved and made applicable also to lightweight buildings (as the EN 12354 series), and used in the proposed new standard, which could be identified as 12354-7.