Acoustic performance of masonry walls: clay blocks filled with expanded vermiculite (04.11)

Masonry is a constructive system consisting of a cohesive and rigid set of units (blocks or bricks) joined by a bonding material. This construction system is widely used in Civil Construction due to its execution facility, cost and performance. There is the possibility of manufacturing a masonry wall using hollow blocks or massif blocks, although the former is used more frequently than the latter, once it minimizes the building's self weight. On the other hand, these cavities decrease the system's surface mass and increase the internal resonances in the blocks, damaging the sound insulation. To minimize this effect, the cavities of the blocks may be filled with porous material, being expanded vermiculite a material with potential for this purpose. This study aimed to evaluate the influence of the use of expanded vermiculite in the filling of cavities on 14 cm thick clay blocks. Sound transmission loss tests were performed, following the parameters of ISO 10140:2010, where the tests were performed in a horizontal airborne sound transmission room, at UNISINOS' itt Performance. The results to be obtained from the tests will be in bands of octave-thirds and weighed values. Through the tests performed, it was observed that through filling the 14 cm thick block cavities with expanded vermiculite, it was possible to obtain a higher acoustic performance of the wall, achieving around 5 dB plus in the Sound Reduction Index (Rw) in its weighed values.