Structural wood floor system design and the possible relations to accoustic properties

Wood construction is the most common type of floor framing system currently used in structures built in the United States. Stiffness of the lumber or engineered wood joists typically controls the floor system’s structural design, due to minimum deflection building code requirements or more restrictive limits specified by the project’s design professional of record. Structural stiffness also dictates the floor joist’s fundamental natural frequency which quantifies the floor system’s performance, that is the occupant’s perception of how the floor feels. The corresponding paper presentation discusses both light-frame wood and mass timber floor stiffness design and its possible relation to the floor system’s acoustic properties.