Grant: Alliance Grants

Mass timber construction has become more popular in the building industry as it is more sustainable, efficient,and economical than conventional construction materials. The majority of recent development in mass timberbuildings has focused on technical issues such as structural strength, fire safety, and cost-effectiveness with theaim of extending the technology to high-rise buildings. In comparison, the acoustic performance of masstimber buildings has received minimal attention. In fact, their poor acoustic performance has been a key barrierto promoting timber construction. Especially impact noise, such as footsteps from neighbors, is difficult toattenuate due to its structure-borne nature and the dynamic property of the mass timber. The current standardson impact sound evaluation methods do not effectively quantify occupants' annoyance as they are designed forconventional materials such as concrete. It has been shown that the existing standards are not reliable forpredicting the impact noise levels for a mass timber floor assembly. On the other hand, the acoustic impedanceand dynamic characteristics of mass timber floors are not fully understood yet. Thus, there is a critical need atthe design stage for understanding and predicting how building occupants perceive impact noise in mass timberbuildings. A more efficient design alternative can be developed by identifying the crucial acoustic componentsthat affect human annoyance and offering feedback on the mass-timber floor design.To address this need, this project aims to develop an innovative mass-timber floor system to improve impactsound insulation in mass timber construction using human-centered design optimization and metamaterial. Theobjective will be carried out by an interdisciplinary team in the area of building acoustics, psychoacoustics,vibration, and timber engineering in British Columbia and Quebec.