Acoustical Solutions
has introduced a new generation of sound isolating material known as Green Glue.
Green Glue is a Visco-Elastic sound damping compound. Visco-Elastic materials
damp vibration, minimizing the transference of sound vibration from one side
of a partition to the other.
Sound damping is a very straightforward concept. Simply put, sound damping
is the rate at which something dissipates energy. The higher the damping rate,
the higher the rate of energy dissipation.
These Visco-Elastic materials are most commonly used in a constrained layer
damping system, sometimes referred to as CLD. Simply put, the Visco-Elastic
materials are "sandwiched" in between two sheets of drywall, plywood
and subflooring. When the resulting sandwich is vibrated, the sandwich is bent,
causing shear forces to pull and stretch on the VE damping material. This allows
the damping materials to dissipate energy. In sound isolation applications,
damping has one broad effect - it works to eliminate stored energy.
So what does all of this work when soundproofing a wall or ceiling? Sound vibration
can pass through a wall either through the rigid connections of the drywall
to the stud, or by vibrating the air cavity between the studs (even when insulated).
Green Glue significantly reduces drywall vibration, and therefore reduces the
amount of energy transmitted through the insulated air cavity. This is particularly
noteworthy in the problematic low frequencies that are normally so hard to block.
In the common wood stud wall, the use of Green Glue also causes far less energy
to transfer to the other side via the rigid mechanical connection provided by
the studs. In decoupled walls, such as staggered stud walls, the use of Green
Glue means the connections at the top and bottom aren't nearly as detrimental
to performance.
Green Glue is a simple solution to help remedy so many real-world conditions.
For retrofit installations, nothing could be simpler that applying a layer of
Green Glue and another sheet of drywall to a problem surface. Use Green Glue
in floors to significantly reduce the sound and footfall noise from transmitting
below.
Green Glue works extremely well in conjunction with common building materials
as well as other specialized acoustical materials such as mass loaded vinyl,
sound isolation clips, acoustic sealants and insulations.