Acoustic implications of thin mass timber panels

As mass timber construction becomes more widely adopted, there is an incentive to use thinner, lighter panels. Research sponsored by the American Wood Council and WoodWorks explores the relative performance of 5-ply CLT and 5-ply equivalent panels to 3-ply CLT and 3-ply equivalent panels both bare and with topping slabs. In addition to the comparison of thicker and thinner panels, assemblies using resilient mats and gypsum concrete topping slabs were also developed to meet the IBC residential code minimum performance. Results and acoustic analysis will be presented along with a discussion of the non-acoustic considerations of the move to thinner mass timber structural panels.