Evaluation of the impact of a leak on the sound transmission loss of a building partition using sound intensity measurements

For partitions in existing buildings with potential leaks, a leak identification method and, above all, a way of assessing the impact of such a leak on sound transmission loss are needed. In this paper, a new method was proposed to evaluate the impact of leakage on the resultant sound transmission loss based on measurement of the sound intensity distribution over a partition. Measurements were carried out in down-scaled reverberation chambers with a scale 1:4. A homogeneous MDF board with leakage in the form of holes of a specific diameter was used. The measurement results were also compared to the values obtained by calculation using well-known models of sound transmission loss of the homogenous partition with an aperture. Measurements and calculations confirmed the possibility of determining the impact of leakage on the resultant sound insulation based only on the measurement of the sound intensity level distribution on the surface of the tested partition.