HEAT

&
S
O
U
N INSULATION
D
ted by : Vishal , Rajesh , Navdeep ,
H INSULATION

E
A
T
 Heat insulation
• Thermal insulation is the method of preventing
heat from escaping a container or from entering
the container. In other words,
• thermal insulation can keep an enclosed area such
as a building warm, or it can keep the inside of
a container cold.
• Heat is transferred by from one material to
another by conduction, convection and/or
radiation.
• Insulators are used to minimize that transfer of
heat energy.
 Applications of thermal insulation

• If you have an object or area that is at a certain

temperature, you may want to prevent that
material from becoming the same temperature
as neighboring materials. This is usually done
by employing a thermal insulation barrier.
• In any location where there are materials of two
drastically different temperatures, you may
want to provide an insulating barrier to prevent
one from becoming the same temperature as the
other. In such situations, the effort is to
minimize the transfer of heat from one area to
another.
 Working
principal
Insulation is a barrier that minimizes the transfer


of heat energy from one material to another by:



• CONDUCTION
• CONVECTION
• RADIATION

 Insulation from conduction
Conduction occurs when materials--especially solids--are in direct
contact with each other. High kinetic energy atoms and molecules
bump into their neighbors, increasing the neighbor's energy. This
increase in energy can flow through materials and from one material to
another.
 Solid to solid
• To slow down the transfer of heat by conduction from one solid to
another, materials that are poor conductors are placed in between
the solids. Examples include:
• Fiberglass is not a good conductor nor is air. That is why bundles of
loosely packed fiberglass strands are often used as insulation
between the outer and inner walls of a house.
• Heat cannot travel though a vacuum. That is why a thermos bottle
has an evacuated lining. Heat cannot be transferred from one
layer to the other through the thermos bottle vacuum.

 Insulation from conduction

Gas to solid


• To slow down the heat transfer between air and a

solid, a poor conductor of heat is placed in between.
• A good example of this is placing a layer of clothing
between you and the cold outside air in the winter.
If the cold air was in contact with your skin, it would
lower the skin's temperature. The clothing slows
down that heat loss. Also, the clothing prevents
body heat from leaving and being lost to the cold
air.


Liquid to solid


• Likewise, when you swim in water, cold water can

lower your body temperature through conduction.
That is why some swimmers wear rubber wet suits
to insulate them from the cold water.
 Insulation from convection

• convection is transfer of heat when a fluid is in

motion. Since air and water do not readily
conduct heat, they often transfer heat (or cold)
through their motion. A fan-driven furnace is an
example of this.
• Insulation from heat transfer by convection is
usually done by either preventing the motion of
the fluid or protecting from the convection.
Wearing protective clothing on a cold, windy
day will inhibit the loss of heat due to
convection.
•
 Insulating material
• Several different insulation materials may be used at various
locations as part of the house envelope, depending on
available space, ease of access and other installation
requirements.
• Most insulation is used to prevent the conduction of heat. In
some cases radiation is a factor.
• A good insulator is obviously a poor conductor.
• A Less dense materials are better insulators.
• The denser the material, the closer its atoms are together. That
means the transfer of energy of one atom to the next is more
effective.
• Gases insulate better than liquids, which in turn insulate better
than solids.
• poor conductors of electricity are also poor heat conductors.
• Wood is a much better insulator than copper.
• the material--like wood--does not conduct heat well.

 A ir a s a in s u la tin g m a te r

• Still air is not a good conductor of heat and

can be a relatively good insulator. However,
in large spaces such as wall cavities, heat
can still be lost across the air space by
convection and radiation. Insulation divides
the air space into many small pockets of still
air; inhibiting heat transfer by convection. At
the same time, the insulation material
reduces radiation across the space.

 Blan ket s , i n th e f or m o f b a t t s
roll s
• Blankets, in the form of batts or rolls,
are flexible products made from
mineral fibers, including fiberglass
or rock wool.
• They are available in widths suited to
standard spacings of wall studs and
attic or floor joists.
• Batts can be installed by homeowners
or professionals.
• They are available with or without
vapor-retarder facings.

They must be hand-cut and trimmed to fit wherever the joist spacing is
non-standard (such as near windows, doors, or corners), or where there
are obstructions in the walls (such as wires, electrical outlet boxes, or
pipes).
Batts with a special flame-resistant facing are available in various widths
for basement walls where the insulation will be left exposed.
 Blown-in loose-fill
• Blown-in loose-fill insulation
includes cellulose, fiberglass, or
rock wool in the form of loose
fibers or fiber pellets that are
blown using pneumatic
equipment, usually by
professional installers.
• This form of insulation can be used in
wall cavities.
• It is also appropriate for unfinished
attic floors, for irregularly shaped
In the open wall cavities of a areas, and for filling in around
obstructions.
new house, cellulose and
fiberglass fibers can also be
sprayed after mixing the
fibers with an adhesive or
foam to make them resistant
to settling.
 Foam insulation
• Foam insulation can be applied
by a professional using
special equipment to meter,
mix, and spray the foam
into place.
• Polyisocyanurate and
polyurethane foam
insulation can be produced
in two forms: open-cell and
closed-cell. In general,
open-celled foam allows
water vapor to move
through the material more
easily than closed-cell foam.

 Rigid insulatio
• Rigid insulation is made from
fibrous materials or plastic
foams and is produced in
board-like forms and molded
pipe coverings.
• These provide full coverage with
few heat loss paths and are
often able to provide a greater
R-value where space is limited.
• Such boards may be faced with a
reflective foil that reduces heat
flow when next to an air space.
• Rigid insulation is often used for
foundations and as an
insulative wall sheathing.
Reflective insulation
• Reflective insulation systems are
fabricated from aluminum foils
with a variety of backings such
as kraft paper, plastic film,
polyethylene bubbles, or
cardboard.
• The resistance to heat flow
depends on the heat flow
direction, and this type of
insulation is most effective in
reducing downward heat flow.
• Reflective systems are typically
located between roof . rafters,
floor joists, or wall studs
 R-value R-Value
• The R-value of a material is its resistance to heat flow and is an
indication of its ability to insulate. It is used as a standard way of
telling how good a material will insulate.The higher the R-value,
the better the insulation.
Definition


• The R-value is the reciprocal of the amount of heat energy per area
of material per degree difference between the outside and inside.
Its units of measurement for R-value are:
• (square feet x hour x degree F)/BTU in the English system and
• (square meters x degrees C)/watts in the metric system
• Table
• Insulation for the home has R-values usually in the range of R-10 up
to R-30.

 R-value of different material
Material R-value

Hardwood siding (1 in. thick) 0.91

Wood shingles (lapped) 0.87

Brick (4 in. thick) 4.00

Concrete block (filled cores) 1.93

Fiberglass batting (3.5 in. thick) 10.90

Fiberglass batting (6 in. thick) 18.80

Fiberglass board (1 in. thick) 4.35

Cellulose fiber (1 in. thick) 3.70

Flat glass (0.125 in thick) 0.89

Insulating glass (0.25 in space) 1.54

Air space (3.5 in. thick) 1.01

Free stagnant air layer 0.17

Drywall (0.5 in. thick) 0.45

Sheathing (0.5 in. thick) 1.32

I N S U L
A
T
I
O
N

SOUND
Sound Insulation
• The use of building materials
and construction
assemblies designed to
reduce the transmission of
air-born structure-born
sound from one room to
another or from the exterior
to the interior of a building
.
• the function of sound
insulation is the prevention
of transmission of sound .
•
The role of noise in sound insulation
 NOISE AND ITS TYPES:
• Noise is defined as unwanted sound and may be due to frequency of
sound or intensity of sound or both.
• Noise from their origin point of view is of the following two types.



OUTDOOR NOISES
• These noise have source of origin outside the room or buildings
such as road traffic, railways , airplanes ,lifts , loud speakers
,moving machinery in the neighborhood or in adjacent buildings.



INDOOR NOISES
• These noise have their source of origin inside the room or building,
such as conservation of the occupants ,cisterns, in water closets ,
working of typewriters, playing of radios, gramophones.

 TRANSMISSION OF sound
The role of noise in sound insulation

• Any noise whether of outdoor or indoor origin is

transmitted through the walls ,frames , ceilings
or floors or an enclosure or through air.
• The noise is transmitted in the following three
ways .
• Through air .
• By the vibration of structure members.
• Through the structure members.

Air-borne sound transmission
• Sound transmitted when a surface is set into
vibration by the alternating air pressure of
incident sound waves.
• Air borne noises or sound is one which is
generated in the air and is transmitted the air
directly to the human ear .
• This type of sound travels from one part of the
building to anther or from outside of the
building to inside , through the openings such a
door ,window , ventilators , keyholes etc.



Structure-borne sound transmission
• Sound transmitted through the solid media of building’s
structure as a result of a direct physical contact of
impact. As by vibrating equipment or footstep.
• Structure borne noises or sounds are those that originate
and progress in the buildings structure.
• These sounds or noises may be caused due to structural
vibrations due to any activity at around above or
below the structure.
• The most common sources of this type of sound are foot
steps , hammering ,drilling ,operating machinery etc.
Transmission loss

• A measure of a performance of a
building material or construction
assembly in preventing the
transmission of airborne sound,
equal to the reduction in sound
intensity as it passes through the
material or assembly when
tested at all one -third octave
band center frequencies from
125 to 4000 Hz. expressed in
decibels
Working principal
• The first and foremost way of insulating against
air borne noise is to isolate it at source .
• The residential building should be properly
located in a quiet area away from the noisy
surroundings the building should be properly
oriented.
• The different units of a building should be
properly planned.
• The provision of furnishing material and living of
walls and ceilings by means of air filled
materials like felts ,strawboards ,glass wool
quilts, coyotes, acoustic etc help to reduce the
noise to a great extent .

Working principal
• The transmission of noise by vibration can be
prevented by making the walls, floors,
partisan very rigid and massive or heavy.
• The control of impact sound to some extent is
possible by either providing resilient
material like carpet ,linoleum ,cock under
layers etc.
• Structure borne noise or sounds can be prevent
by introducing discontinuities in the path of
vibrating waves and by sound absorbing
materials

Constructional measures sound insulation

• The levels of desired sound insulation for different types of

building and between the individual rooms or apartment
of a building can be achieved by the following
constructional measures of noise control and sound
insulation.
•
Wall & partitions
• These wall construction should act as vertical barriers
in the transmission of air borne sound or noise .
• To achieve this objective the following methods of wall
construction can be adopted depending upon the
extent of sound insulation required .
• Rigid and massive homogeneous partition
• The sound insulation of a partition increases with the
increase in its thickness .
• But the increase in insulation value of a solid wall
construction is slow in proportion to the increase in
its thickness.
• Hence it is not economical to increase the thickness o a
solid wall beyond a certain limit.

Partition of porous material

• The sound insulation increase about 10%

higher than the non-porous variety of the
same weight due to the absorptive property
of the material but partition of flexible
porous material, such as felt mineral wool,
quilt etc offer very low sound insulation as
compared to rigid materials.
•
Hollow and composite partition
• It is established that a cavity wall or double wall construction is
better for sound insulation than a solid wall construction .
• A composite partition of cavity wall type construction by filling
the cavity or leaving the aie space with some resilient material
is best for increasing insulation value or sound proofing
rooms .
This consist of two leaves of
• wall made of light material
DOUBLE LEAFED CAVITY WALL,EACH LEAF10CM THICK BRICK
MASONARY

,such as metal lath and plaster

• foreboards,plaster boards
CELOLUX OR ACOUSTEX INSULATING BOARD

,plywood etc fixed on studs INSULATE IN GAP OR GLASS QUILT

with an air space in between

the air space of about 10 to COKE BREEZE CONCRETE FLOORING
CARPET OR LINOLEUM FLOOR FINISH

12 is kept between the leaves

of wall and staggered
wooden studs are provided as SAND

supports. RCC FLOOR

FOUNDATION WALL
 Floor & ceiling
• These floors and ceiling are required to act as horizontal
barriers in the transmission o both air borne and impact
sounds or noises .
• In most of cases where the ceilings and floors construction is
of solid type like r.c.c floors they offer adequate insulation
against air borne sounds because of rigid and heavy
construction but offer poor insulation for structure borne or
impact sounds .
• This objective can be met by the following constructional
measures.
• Use of resilient surface material on floors
• In this method over the massive and rigid construction of
floors slabs ,a surface layer of resilient materials such as
linoleum insulation boards ,cork, asphalt mastic and carpet
etc are employed.

Providing a floating floor construction
• The principal underlying the construction of a floating
floor is its insulation from any other part of structure.
• To achieve this an additional floating floor is made to
rest or float over the existing floor by means of a
resilient like glass wool ,material wool ,quilt, hair
felt ,cork ,rubber etc, so that impact sounds and
consequent vibration are not transmitted to the room
below it also improves insulation against air borne
sounds.
• Floating floor construction can be adopted for both
concrete as well as wooden floor and is described
below.
•
Concrete floor
• In case of concrete floor ,the
resilient layer on which the
floating floor is intended to
rest, is turned up at all edges
which about the wall partition
or other parts of structure the
various types of floating floor
construction for concrete floor
are explained below.
•
concrete floor with floating concrete screed

• This consist of a layer of concrete screed

(1:11/2:3) not less than 5 cm in thickness
and resting on a resilient layer of mineral
wood quilt laid over the structural floor
slab and turned up against the surrounding
walls ar all the edges.
• The quilt is covered with a waterproof paper
to prevent wet concrete running through it.
•
concrete floor with floating wood raft

• This consist of floor

boarding nailed to
wooden bitterns (5cm
x 5cm size) to form a
raft which is laid over
2 cm thick resilient
quilt and in turn is
made to rest over the
structural concrete
floor slab.
•
Suspended ceiling

• In this type the uses of suspended

ceiling provides insulation against
air borne sound and soft floor
finish of resilient covering such as
carpets,corks or linoleum etc.
• If sufficiently thick ,provide
insulation against structure borne
or impact sound .
•
 Soft floor

• In this type 5 cm thick light weight concrete

screed gives a certain amount of insulation
against air borne sound but in addition the uses
of resilient floor gives a high insulation against
both air borne and impact sound .
• The uses of dense topping has two fold functions
• It provides a suitable base for the floor finish.
• It provides an impervious air tight layers ,sealing
the top of the light weight screed.

 Wooden floors

• In case of floors constructed of wooden joists, the

problem of sound insulation becomes more
difficult particularly in the presence of heavy
mechanical impact sound .
• This problem in case of timber floors is taken care
of either by making the wall thicker below the
floor or making the floor itself heavy and stiff
enough to reduce the vibration of the walls .
• Two different types of wooden joist floating floor
which gives adequate insulation are given
below .
•
Supporting walls are 10 cm thick or less

• A ceiling of expanded metal and 3 coated plaster loaded

directly with plugging of 5 cm of dry sand and
properly constructed is considered to be satisfactory.
• The flowing floor consists of floor boarded nailed to
the battens to from a raft which rests on a resilient
quilt draped or arranged over the wooden joists . the
whole raft should be insulated from the surrounding
wall either by turning up the resilient quilt at the
edges or by leaving a gap round the edges to be
covered by skirting.
• The plugging in the air space is uses to deaden the
sound effect.
•
Supporting wall are 20 cm or more
• The ceiling consist of plaster boards and plaster finish
are directly loaded with plugging of slag wool or
mineral wool other detail are same as type 1.
•
 TYPE III USE OF SUSPEVDED CEILING
WITH AIR SPACE
• In this construction ,a false independent ceiling is
connected below the solid or wooden floor by
means of metal hanger , acoustic clips etc with an
air space in between .
• The construction offer good insulation against both
the air borne as well as the structure borne sound
and especially suitable in case of wood joist floor .
•
Window & door
• In case of window ,sound insulation of single
window is improved by making them as air
tight as possible by filling the air space at
the edges of such panels with sound
absorbing material .
• In case of door ,the transmission loss or sound
reduction increase with the increase in
weight ,the sound insulation can further be
improved by packing the sound absorbing
material in the space between the jamb and
frame .
 conclusion
• The increase in transmission loss or sound
reduction of a solid massive construction is
slow in proportion to the increase in its
thickness.
• If the material is uses is of porous and flexible
nature ,like hair felt ,its sound insulation is
proportional to its thickness .
• In double wall or cavity wall construction an air
space is generally better than a filling
material ,since it may be detrimental to sound
insulation ,if it bridge the separated surfaces.

conclusion
• A cavity wall with two leaves having thickness of 10
cm each has 80% increase in insulation value as
compared to a single brick solid wall of 20 cm
thickness, without any increase in weight bit with
little increase in cost.
• and solid glass panel have better insulation property as
compared to larger and thicker flexible glass panel.
• Double glazing of glass window improves insulation to
a considerable degree.
• Sealed double windows or triple window of plate glass
with an air space in between can be successfully used
where sound proofing is desired.

Any question