Comparing input energy to output energy measurements of heavy weight impacts on fitness flooring solutions

Over the past few years, having the ability to quantify heavy weight impact noise and vibration in structures has become increasingly important. Presently, this is accomplished by dropping a weight of known mass from a known height onto a fitness flooring material and measuring the acceleration and/or sound pressure level in the receiving room. While this gives an accurate representation of how the noise and vibration is transmitted for that particular test location, it provides no insight into the results for another test location. If the input energy into the test assembly is known, a better understanding is obtained of what the output energy from the test assembly will be. The input energy is quantified by instrumenting a weight with an accelerometer and dropping it onto a fitness flooring material placed on a 1.2 m thick concrete slab on grade. The recorded data displays the force impulse in the time domain and, through the use of a fast Fourier transform, in the frequency domain. This data is then compared to the one third octave band data recorded in the receiving room of a typical acoustical test chamber. This paper analyzes trends seen between the two data sets and states what further measurements and research must be done in an effort to make predictions of how fitness flooring assemblies will perform.