Evaluation of Cracking Strength of Floating Floor System

This paper reports the test results of the floating floor system used to reduce the floor noise of apartment buildings. Recently, many soft resilient materials placing between the reinforced concrete slab and finishing mortar are used. The resilient material should not only reduce the floor impact sound vibration from the floor but also support the load on the floor. Thus, even if soft resilient materials satisfy the maximum limitation of light-weight impact sound and heavy-weight impact sound, these materials may not support the load on the floor. The experimental program involved conducting sixteen sound insulation floating floor specimens. Three main parameters were considered in the experimental investigation: resilient materials, loading location, and layers of floor. Experimental results indicated that the stiffness of resilient material significantly influenced on the structural behavior of floating floor system. In addition, the deflection of the floating concrete floor loaded at the side or coner of the specimen was greater than that of the floor loaded at the center of the specimen. However, the aerated concrete did not effect on the cracking strength of floating floor system.