Version 6.4 November 2010
Marshall Day Acoustics are very pleased to release version 6.4. The new features include such major improvements as the ability to estimate The impact sound level of light weight timber floors (IIC, Ln,w). Previously only concrete or masonry floors could be calculated. Typical floors with plywood, particle board, or OSB fixed to timber joists are able to be handled by INSUL, with or without plasterboard or similar ceilings.
Significant improvement in types of materials that can be modelled. Two new material types, elastic core materials, and inelastic core materials have been added. Elastic core materials can be used to model sandwich panels that have steel skins with a polystyrene or similar core. Extra parameters required in the materials file include the core density, thickness, damping and elastic modulus. Standard materials (i.e. all previous Insul materials) are now called isotropic materials.
The transmission loss of porous blankets such as fibreglass or mineral wool can be predicted.
A porous facing can be added to a construction. This would be typical of an acoustic panel system for machine enclosures, or metal roofs incorporating a perforated pan.
The prediction of profiled metal panels has been improved. The algorithms of Lam and Windle have been incorporated and these can be used over the range of profiles that Lam and Windle state they are applicable. Profiled or corrugated panels can be used in double panel arrangements.
There is a text file (profile.txt) which has a selection of pre-defined trapezoidal profiles
Floor coverings can be edited from within INSUL with a built in editor. Data can be cut and pasted from external sources such as spreadsheets.
Colour of materials can be specified in the materials file. These colours are used in the on screen drawing and printouts of the construction.
Improved ability to cut and paste data to and from the reference columns.
New html help file (to suit Windows 7), updated and improved content.
“Recent files” list on the files menu.
User can replace logo on print out with their own logo.
Printing has been tidied up with printing, pdf and print preview now identical code, with larger print preview. Should suit both A4 and letter sized paper.
Triple glazing algorithms have been modified slightly to improve agreement with test data.
A new frame type (Z-Girt) has been added.
The parameters in the absorption.txt file have been extended by adding the density of the material and a colour (which shows in the on screen picture and on the printouts).
Version 6.3 August 2009
This new version of Insul has three main new features. Firstly it can calculate the sound level produced by rain falling on a light weight roof with or without a ceiling underneath the roof. Secondly it now has a built in calculator for predicting the sound level in a room for a given outdoor sound level, this calculates according to EN 12354/3. Thirdly it can predict the transmission loss of triple glazing.
The rain noise prediction is based on original research carried out by Marshall Day Acoustics and it is very useful for countries where rain fall is high and buildings are often constructed from light weight materials. The original research was prompted by problems in New Zealand classrooms where it was impossible to hear a teacher's voice at times of high rainfall.
The Outdoor to Indoor calculator is a simple tool for estimating the internal noise levels for a given external noise level at the building facade. There are some pre-defined spectra which can be easily adjusted to a given A weighted level or the user can enter the frequency spectrum of the sound level together with the area of the building element, the transmission loss of that element (o rimport from INSUL) then the volume of the receiving room and its reverberation time. The indoor level is then calculated according toEN12354/3. Up to 5 elements can be combined in one calculation. The calculation can be made in octave or 1/3 octave bands.
New Sound Absorption Prediction Software
Zorba is a software package designed to predict the sound absorption coefficients of porous materials with a wide variety of slotted, perforated or panel coverings. Details can be found at this website
Vista Issues June 2007
Insul version 6.2 is compatible with Windows Vista. Previous releases of Insul however will not work with Vista because of an incompatibility with the USB key software. Users of versions 6.0 and 6.1 who move to Vista can download an updated version 6.1 from the Insul download page that will work with Vista. Earlier version can not be operated with Vista and users will need to upgrade to version 6.2 if they move to Vista.
Version 6.2 release 1 June 2007
Insul can now estimate the effect of leakage past the partition. The dimensions of the leak are entered and the combined transmission loss of partition and leak are predicted.
This version is now Vista compatible.
Hardware keys can now be updated from within Insul
Version 6.1 release 1 November 2006
Composite transmission loss calculator has been included. Can either use Insul data or enter one's own data. Works with either 1/3 or 1 Octave data.
Added "acoustic stud" option for frame type. This should predict the performance of new steel studs that are specifically designed to improve sound transmission loss of plasterboard walls using steel studs.
Changes to look of buttons on toolbar, larger icons.
Can copy a picture of the construction to the clipboard and paste into Word processor, spreadsheet etc.
Can paste results in row format that should be suitable for Bastian
Swedish language now available
Version 6.0 release 1 May 2005
Version 6.0 now has the ability to predict Impact sound of concrete or masonry floors.
Staggered steel studs now an option in frame types.
Spanish has been added to the available languages
A network version (5.6N) is now available.
A hardware key is connected to the USB port of one computer on the company network and monitors the number of copies of INSUL that are permited to run. The standalone version (5.6) also uses a USB key for protection.
Insul can now switch between English German and French. Current users (version 5.5 and later only) can request a new executable file that has the new languages incorporated.
An updated help file is available to all existing users, please email insul@insul.co.nz for a copy.
Insul is continually being improved as a result of user feedback and to include new research as it becomes available. A brief list below of some of the recent modifications gives you a flavour of the progress that continues to be made.
Version 5.5 is now available (1 Nov 2003) and can be ordered through your local distributor.
There is a modest upgrade cost for people who purchased versions more than 12 months ago. This version includes the following improvements.
Significant improvements to the calculation algorithms for the mass-air-mass resonance dip. Based on research by National Research Canada as published in Noise Control Engineering. Improves prediction of drywall lining on masonry walls.
Improved algorithms for point and line connections above the critical frequency.
Addition of steel studs plus resilient rail as a wall option
.Improved display of cavity infill, the thickness of the infill on the drawing is linked to the thickness input. Note it is the users responsibility to make sure the thickness is less than the cavity width otherwise the infill is drawn outside the cavity.
The index DnTw is now calculated and displayed.
The STC/Rw rating of the reference and comparison spectra is calculated and displayed in the legend of the graph.
Improvements made to saving and recalling of the cavity absorption. Unfortunately this means version 5.5 files are incompatible with earlier files.
Function for previewing the printout.
Ability to generate a PDF file of the printout. This can be useful for emailing results to others.
If you recall a saved file the file name is displayed in the top of the main form.
Version 5.3 (May 2003) incorporated the following improvements.
Blank lines are permitted in the main materials file to separate different groups of materials. A blank line shows in the drop down box but can not be selected
The thickness of the absorptive infill can be changed by entering the thickness in an edit box on either the wall or ceiling page.
One can change the background colour of the picture of the partition
Additional colouring for materials (eg glass is now light blue, pine is brown, aluminium is grey, concrete is light grey, brick is red etc)
There is now an external text file to put in glazing materials for the double glazing feature.
The information copied to the clip board now includes Ctr and C or OITC as appropriate.
Key number now prints out for licence number
New feature on the graph so that you can turn of auto scaling. This is useful if you want to compare several printouts on the same scale. Fixed scale is 0-80dB.
Added feature so that you can click on a point on the graph to see what the value of TL is at that point.
Added dimensioning of the overall thickness of walls and floors.
Fixed certain errors with English units for this print out.
Fixed mistake in double glazing whereby settings of the inner layer of panel 1 and the outer layer of panel 2 affected the double glazing calcs.
Improved printouts. Fibreglass no longer appears outside the cavity in certain ceilings. Extra information included on ceiling printouts. Tidied up format of printout.
Page for inputting an absorptive facing has been temporarily removed for further investigation.
Screen size changed to suit 800x600 displays
Double stud steel stud walls are now an option (but give identical results to double timber studs)
RSIC Clips from Sound Isolation Systems International (formerly known as Stud and Track) are an option for walls and ceilings.
Colour of infill is determined by its flow resistivity. White for low flow resistivity (< 1500 Rayls/m), yellow for 1500-20,000 rayls/m and red for > 20,000 Rayls/m
Cavity infill materials are now stored in an external text file and new materials can be added to the file. The required data is the flow resistivity and thickness of the material.
Added OITC calculation when displaying STC.
Re-arranged the menus to be more in line with windows conventions.
Help file updated (first update since 1998 I am ashamed to say)
You can now set two different comparisons, a red line and a yellow line. You can attach an annotation to each comparison.
In double glazing there are now options for laminated glass and Lucite (same as Perspex or Polycarbonate in countries where Lucite is not known)
Added a button to copy a bitmap of the graph to the clipboard.
I have incorporated the C corrections from ISO 717 for pink noise and Traffic noise. Only visible when Rw is selected. The frequency range for the C spectrum adaptation terms for ISO 717 can now be set to either 100-3150 Hz or 50-5000 Hz
In picture of construction the stud is now coloured brown, fibreglass is drawn with a thicker pen and the heavier density rockwool is coloured green.
There is a separate option and picture of a steel stud and of a resilient rail.
One may cut and paste to the reference spectrum from the clipboard You can turn the reference spectra on and off individually.
In version 5 a major improvement was made to the single panel algorithms to include the effect of shear waves and also the effect of coupling to other building elements (which shows up as apparent damping). This dramatically improved predictions for heavy masonry walls and previous empirical corrections in versions 4.6 and earlier for concrete walls could be removed.