Vibration transmission through a frame typical of timber-framed buildings

A study of vibration transmission through a frame typical of timber-framed buildings was undertaken in order to establish whether or not statistical energy analysis (SEA) could be used to model such structures. Examination of individual beam junctions showed that the normal assumption that junctions are rigid was not valid and that the junctions were better modelled as pinned junctions (sometimes also called hinged junctions) through which no moments are transmitted. It was also found that there were significant fluctuations in the response due to the low modal overlap factor of the beams. When appropriate corrections for both the junction transmission and the low mode count were taken into consideration, there was satisfactory agreement between the measured and predicted results. These theories were then used to model vibration transmission through a large two-storey timber frame and it was found that standard SEA models could be used to predict the mean response and that the fluctuations about that mean could also be estimated. © 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.