TMRL GROUP C3

ACOUSTIC
INSULATION
EDIFICIO CRISTAL

Iago Cabreira Comesaña and Belén Vaquero Lamas

TMRL – C3 ACOUSTIC INSULATION REPORT

INDEX

1. ENVIRONMENT .......................................................................................................................... 2
1.1. Description of the environment ......................................................................................... 2
1.2. Environmental noise .......................................................................................................... 4
2. REQUIREMENTS AND ANALYSIS OF THE BUILDING................................................................... 5
2.1. Premises and situations ..................................................................................................... 6
3. BUILDING SOLUTION ................................................................................................................. 9
3.1. Interior partitions on a use unit ......................................................................................... 9
3.2. Horizontal separation elements ....................................................................................... 10
3.3. Vertical separation elements ........................................................................................... 12
3.4. Façades ............................................................................................................................. 13
4. SHEETS OF SIMPLIFIED OPTION............................................................................................... 14
5. JOINTS BETWEEN BUILDING ELEMENTS.................................................................................. 15
5.2. Joint with the interior partitions ...................................................................................... 15
5.3. Joint with the façade ........................................................................................................ 16
5.4. Joint with the floating floor .............................................................................................. 16
5.5. Joint with the suspended ceiling ...................................................................................... 17

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TMRL – C3 ACOUSTIC INSULATION REPORT

1. ENVIRONMENT
Our aim is to evaluate if the given building Edificio Cristal fulfils the requirements
depicted on the CTE DB-HR (Código Técnico de Edificación Documento Básico de Habitabilidad
frente al Ruido). So first of all we need to know the kind of area where this building is placed in.

1.1. Description of the environment

Edificio Cristal is located in the south of Gijón, Asturias (Spain) in a new
residential area, Nuevo Roces.

Picture 1. Aerial view of Calle Ramón Gómez Lozana 160, Gijón (Edificio Cristal).

As we can see it is a not really crowded residential area (Pictures 3 and 4) which
seems not to be really noisy. However the area is surrounded by some noise sources we
must take into account (as shown in picture 2):

1. AS-1 highway

2. A-8 highway

3. Close industrial plants

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Picture 2. Noise sources surrounding Edificio Cristal.

Picture 3. Acoustic zoning map of Nuevo Roces, Gijón.

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1.2. Environmental noise

To make our hypothesis clear we referred to the noise maps of the city available
on this city webpage. As shown in the noise map, we can expect an environmental noise
level of 60dB. The noise map of Gijón we consulted is the one below:

Picture 4. Noise map of Nuevo Roces, Gijón.

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2. REQUIREMENTS AND ANALYSIS OF THE BUILDING

We are focusing on the study of the insulation requirements for the 1st floor of Edificio Cristal.
Here we present a map of this floor. We can see 7 different use units.

Picture 5. Map of the insulation requirements for the 1st floor of Edficio Cristal.

Picture 6. Legend of insulation requirements map (pic. 5).

In order to specify the insulation requirements for all given cases we have been following the
CTE DB-HR which makes a difference between several premises and situations:

We took this into account:

● Airborne acoustic insulation: measured through Dnt and RA (global acoustic reduction
index, A weighted). They both are realated following the next equation:

Both airborne noise insulation between adjacent premises and façade insulation are
taken into account.

● Impact noise insulation: measured through Lnt,w (global impact noise acoustic pressure).
Lnt,w describes the sound pressure level received when a reference tapping machine is
used on the floor. Impact noise is measured vertically between premises on different
floors.

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2.1. Premises and situations

● Protected: Rooms and living rooms.

○ Airborne noise insulation:

■ The insulation between premises that belong to the same use unit can’t
be less tan 33dBA (picture 5, green).

■ If these protected premises do not belong to the same use unit:

● If they do not share doors or windows DnTa≥50dBA between
protected premises and every other habitable or protected
premise (picture 5, dark blue)
● If they do share doors or windows RA≥50dBA between a
protected premise and any other type of premise (picture 5,
maroon). RA of doors/Windows won’t be less tan 30dBA
(picture 5, brown). This will only happen at main doors (house
entrance) so in our case this doors will always lead to the living
room.

■ Airborne noise insulation coming from installation or activity premises:

DnTa ≥ 55dBA between a protected premise and one of these
activity/installation premises, the elevator shaft in our (picture 5, pink).

■ Airborne noise insulation coming from the outside (façade): In this case
the requirement of DnTa will deppend on the day time environmental
noise data depicted on the noise map of the área Ld, as we can see on
the table below:

Regarding the noise map of the area we realized that the Ld of Nuevos
Roces (Gijón) is around 55 and 60 dB so the requirement for DnTa has to
be DnTa ≥ 30dBA either for protected or habitable (picture 5, purple).

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○ Impact noise:

■ Impact noise insulation between premises that do not belong to the

same use unit: LnT, w ≥ 65dB for protected premises adjacent to either
protected or habitable premises. In our case the left half of the ground
floor is made of storage rooms so we will be using this value of LnT, w
(picture 5, light green).

■ Impact noise coming from installation/activity premises insulation: LnT,w

≥ 60dB for protected adjacent to activity/installation premises. In our
case the right half of the ground floor is composed by the boiler room
and a gymnasium so we will be using this value of LnT,w (picture 5,
orange) .

● Habitable: The rest of the rooms like kitchens, bathrooms…

○ Airborne noise insulation:

■ Insulation between premises that belong to the same use unit: RA for
the internal partitions won’t be less tan 33dBA (picture 5, green)

■ If these premises do not belong to the same use unit:

● If they do not share doors or windows DnTa ≥ 45dBA between

protected premises and every other habitable or protected
premise (picture 5, light blue)
● If they do share doors or windows RA ≥ 40dBA between a
protected premise and any other type of premise (picture 5,
red). RA of doors/Windows won’t be less tan 20dBA (picture 5,
dark yellow).

■ Airborne noise insulation coming from installation or activity premises:

DnTa ≥ 45dBA between a protected and an activity/installation premise,
the elevator shaft in our case (picture 5, dark pink).

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○ Impact noise:

■ Impact noise coming from installation/activity premises insulation: LnT,w

≥ 60dB for protected adjacent to activity/installation premises. In our
case the right half of the ground floor is composed by the boiler room
and a gymnasium so we will be using this value of LnT,w (picture 5,
orange) .

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TMRL – C3 ACOUSTIC INSULATION REPORT

3. BUILDING SOLUTION
On the CTE DB-HR there are two options while evaluating the insulation of a building,
the general method and the simplified one. We are going to use the simplified one. So
according to the document we have to take care about five elements: interior partitions on a
use unit, horizontal separation elements, vertical separation elements, façades and windows.
Our criteria for choosing all building elements will be to choose always the lightest and
cheapest option that fulfils the requirements.

3.1. Interior partitions on a use unit

Regarding the table 3.1 of the CTE DB-HR we have selected the following option:

As said before, we chose type 1 walls because they are cheaper than
types 2 and 3 despite the fact that, for this case, they are not lighter than
any other. The requirements say that RA should be at least 33dBA so we
are fulfilling them with this choice.

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3.2. Horizontal separation elements

We have to make a difference between slabs that separate the first and the second
floor and the first floor and activity premises below the first floor. Both of them have different
requirements so we are using the most restrictive one DnT>65dB. So regarding the table 3.3 of
the CTE DB-HR we have selected the following option:

It is mandatory, if we choose this option, to add both floating floor and suspended
ceiling in order to fulfil both requirements DnT≥65dBA and Lw≥30dB.

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- FLOATING FLOOR

- SUSPENDED CEILING

- BASE ELEMENT

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3.3. Vertical separation elements

For the vertical separation elements we have to be very careful about the elevator
shaft because it has a more restrictive requirement (DnT ≥ 55dBA).

- BASE ELEMENT (NOT FOR THE ELEVATOR SHAFT)

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TMRL – C3 ACOUSTIC INSULATION REPORT

- BASE ELEMENT (FOR THE ELEVATOR SHAFT)

- PANELLING (FOR THE ELEVATOR SHAFT)

- PANELLING (NOT FOR THE ELEVATOR SHAFT)

3.4. Façades
As we said on section 2.2 the requirement for the façade will be DnTa ≥ 30dBA so:

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4. SHEETS OF SIMPLIFIED OPTION

1
89 70
Enl 15 + LHD 70 + Enl 15 36 35

Premises from different use units

189 180
Enl 15 + BH AL-M 140 + Enl 15 45 45
YL 10 + MW 48 + SP 9 9

143 135
RE + CV + AT + BC 140 + Enl 15 42 42

305 300
U_BC 250 mm 52
52
8 8
YL + 15 + C 27 18

AC + M 50 + AR MW 12 5 5

Elevator shaft

350 350
Enl 15 + BH AD 290 + Enl 15 55 55
YL 10 + MW 30 8 8

143 135
RE + CV + AT + BC 140 + Enl 15 42
42

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5. JOINTS BETWEEN BUILDING ELEMENTS

5.2. Joint with the interior partitions

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TMRL – C3 ACOUSTIC INSULATION REPORT

5.3. Joint with the façade

5.4. Joint with the floating floor

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5.5. Joint with the suspended ceiling

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