Modelling the excitation force of a standard tapping machine on lightweight floor structures

Up to now the research and development in the field of building acoustics is based mainly on measurements. In consequence the development and optimization of a new building component is a very tedious and expensive task. A considerable reduction of these costs could be achieved, if the optimization relying on measurements would be replaced - at least to some extent - by a computational prediction model. For these models it is necessary to represent not only the component and the adjacent rooms but also the excitation in a suitable way. This paper gives an overview of models for the excitation generated by a standard tapping machine taking into account the interaction between the impacting steel cylinders of the tapping machine and the vibrating surface of the floor.