Sound flanking transmission through two adjacent rooms within a dwelling building

As a component of sound transmission through a dwelling building, flanking transmission has important effects on its sound insulation. This study will explore the mechanism of the sound flanking transmission through the adjacent rooms within a dwelling building which can be divided into several subsystems by adopting Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA), and, the sound energy equations of these subsystems will be obtained. Then, the sound transmissions on each flanking path are predicted and the dominant sound transmission path is also determined by the sound pressure level differences on these paths. As to a masonry building with heavy-weight homogeneous building envelopes, the results show that (1) non-passing through the separating wall flanking transmission paths may become the dominant ones at low frequencies, (2) at medium and high frequencies, all sound transmissions on the flanking paths tend to be consistent, and sound insulation between two adjacent rooms within a dwelling building depends on the direct transmission path which passes through the separating wall, and (3) heavy-weight separating wall can dwindle the frequency range of flanking transmission which affects the sound insulation between two adjacent rooms within a dwelling building. The proposed results can be applied to improve the sound environment quality and provide the theoretical guidance for sound insulation design in a dwelling building.