Sound Transmission Loss of Insulated Concrete Sandwich Panels: Analytical Model and Application

Multifunctional energy-efficient and load-bearing insulated concrete sandwich panels (ICSPs), which consist of two concrete layers and a middle functional layer, have been increasingly used. Existing studies have mainly focused on their mechanical behavior. This paper forms an important step to evaluate their noise reduction effect. To this end, an analytical model using the theory of periodic structure was derived first, where the connectors are simplified as elastic springs. Next, the accuracy of the analytical model was verified using finite-element (FE), mass law, and experimental results. Further, a parametric study was conducted using the analytical model considering different parameters, including axial stiffness of the connectors, thickness of the core layer, and Young’s modulus. The results show that, with the increase of the axial stiffness of the connectors, the noise reduction effect of the ICSPs becomes better. The effect no longer changes when the stiffness is sufficiently high. As the core layer thickness decreases, the overall noise reduction increases. When the stiffness of the connector is sufficiently large, the effect of the Young’s modulus of the core layer is negligible. This study can be used to optimize the design of ICSPs when noise reduction effect needs to be considered.