ABSTRACT
Driven by the ambition to reduce the embodied energy in buildings, a current trend in the construction sector is to utilize more wood and lightweight composites. In addition to that, the service-life of buildings can be extended by flexible and adaptable floorplans, which typically require large-span structures. However, structures that are both lightweight and large-span are prone to increased vibration levels. This paper presents a computational framework for assessing the vibro-acoustic performance of such buildings at an early stage of the design process. The framework merges advanced digital tools for architectural design with rigorous finite-element models of the building structure. The functionality of the framework is validated by means of analysing a small CLT building, and here specifically the steady-state response to time-harmonic excitation on a floor. It is shown that representative acceleration levels can be achieved with a low computational effort.
