The airborne sound insulation of glass: Part 1

This paper is to be published in three consecutive issues of Applied Acoustics . This first part is a brief survey of the theory and practice of the measurement of the sound insulation of glass. In Part 2 the effects of changes in the various parameters will be discussed. The tabulated data supporting this discussion will constitute the final part. With the increase of noise in the external environment more attention is being focussed on the need for better sound insulation of buildings. If high sound insulation is required, the window and its design become important. Although results of sound insulation measurements obtained in the laboratory are not strictly comparable with the values achieved in actual buildings, laboratory measurements are necessary as a basis for design decisions. There is a need for a review of the currently available results of such measurements which this paper is intended to provide. The theoretical aspects of the sound insulation of both single and double panels are briefly outlined but the major part of this paper is concerned with the presentation of the results obtained by various experimenters. Recommendations as to which window construction should be used for protection against a specific noise, such as traffic noise or aircraft noise, are not made, since this would require a discussion of the subjective aspects of noise, which is outside the scope of the present work.