Classification scheme of floor impact sound insulation by rubber ball

Heavy weight impact sound is one of the major noise sources in Korean apartment buildings. Previous studies reported that children's jumping and running is the main impact sources in real life. Since the rubber ball shows the similar impact sound characteristics with the children in terms of objective and subjective responses, it was standardized as a heavy & soft standard impact source in ISO, JIS and KS. Recently, standardization work on derivation of single number quantity for rubber ball has begun based on the proposed calculation method. In order to develop and improve the rubber ball impact sound isolation system such as floating floor and damping material for floor systems, classification scheme for rubber ball is needed for the evaluation and certification of the systems. Several studies on the subjective response on rubber ball impact were conducted and they proposed minimum requirement and criteria considering subjective results. In this study, for the establishment of a classification scheme of rubber ball impact sound, subjective results and measured results of the rubber ball impact sound isolation performance in newly built Korean apartment buildings considered. Also, the authors tried to harmonize the classification system of rubber ball impact sound with 6 class classification scheme in ISO/TS AWI 19488.