Psychoacoustical evaluation of heavyweight floor impact sounds in apartment buildings

Abstract

An auditory experiment was conducted to establish annoyance criteria for floor impact noise in apartment buildings. Heavyweight floor impact sounds were recorded using an impact ball; the impact sound pressure level (SPL) together with the temporal decay rate (DR), which is quantified by the dB drop per second, was analyzed. For the experiment, A-weighted exposure levels of the heavyweight floor impact sounds ranging 34–73 dB were evaluated at 3 dB intervals. Participants used a 7-point verbal scale to evaluate the level of annoyance from floor impact noise. The results show that the annoyance increases with increasing impact SPL and decreasing DR. Consequently, a classification and an acceptable level of floor impact sounds were proposed.