Prediction of one-third-octave band sound and vibration levels from heavy-hard impacts

Noise and vibration due to dropping hard heavy weights is a common source of disturbance and complaint in residential, commercial, and mixed-use building types. The authors and others have worked on developing methodologies to accurately, repeatably, and conveniently measure heavy-hard impact noise and vibration in the field based on a standard weight drop. Separately, systems have been created to measure the force being injected into a building from heavy-hard impact. It has been shown that this force data can be used to successfully predict vibration levels in buildings if in-situ transfer functions are known. In this paper, the authors will present a novel one-third-octave band prediction method using the laboratory force data and a reference impact sheet to predict field performance without the need to measure transfer function. The method is evaluated using both noise and vibration measurements.