Transmission of Sound through Tied Walls: An Experimental Study

Experimental work on the prediction of sound transmission loss, TL, of brick cavity walls, plastered on both faces, is presented. First double brick walls having either 2 cm or 5 cm cavity widths were subjected to a diffuse sound field. Then tied walls were tested. In order to assess the effect of the wall ties on TL values, two types of ties, namely unit and continuous reinforcement, were investigated. The low frequency TL of the walls was observed to be highly affected by the presence of ties. High frequency TL values were not strongly influenced by the ties. When the leaves of the double brick walls having 5 cm cavity depth were tied, regardless of the type of tie used, their Sound Transmission Class was decreased by 5 points.