Measurement and evaluation of lateral impact noise isolation

Impact noise isolation measurements and evaluation are traditionally defined for vertical adjacencies, where the impact source is located in the space above the receiving room. For North American projects, ASTM standards provide no guidance for performing a lateral impact noise isolation measurement, so the authors have developed methods and practices for performing this measurement. ISO 16283-2 also describes procedures and methods for the measurements and analysis of lateral impact noise measurements. The various measurement methods are compared and evaluated. For some assembly types, there is an advantage to maintaining a constant distance from tapping machine to the separating partition. Appropriate ratings for categorization of lateral impact isolation are discussed.