Floors in residential buildings require performance assessment with respect to daily safety and comfortableness. This is especially important for floors in Japanese houses which are used without shoes, retirement facilities and rehabilitation facilities. For these aforementioned floors, the following performances are required:
·Floor stiffness during walking
·Titubation during walking
·Floor stiffness during activities where soles are not in contact with no-shoe-floors such as sitting and lying down
·Floor stiffness during collision when a subject falls down
The following performances are standard for no-shoes-floors:
·Lightweight floor impact sound insulation property
·Walking floor impact sound insulation property
In addition, with the aging society in Japan, the runnability of castor or a wheelchair is also becoming an important performance requirement.
These performances are influenced by the deformation characteristics of the floor in the vertical direction. However, the degree of influence is not clear as it varies depending on the material of the floor and the construction methods. This needs to be quantified in order to appropriately specify floor coverings for new buildings.
This research focused on identifying the extent of influence of certain floor materials and construction methods on the performance of floors. In addition, an investigation of the relationship between various performances and deformation characteristics was performed. The scope of the research involves floor coverings on concrete groundwork commonly used in Japanese residences including wooden floor, tatami mat, PVC sheeting and tiles and carpet.
The methodology of investigation involved two stages. Firstly, 63 floor coverings with varying deformation characteristics were selected and sample floors were made by gluing these onto a rigid concrete groundwork. The performance value of each sample was compared to the evaluation of building users which was measured via methods including those established in past research and specified in the Japan Industrial Standards. The second stage involved the development of a device which can measure deformation characteristics via static loading. This device was used to measure the deformation characteristics of the samples and thus, relationships between these results and performance values were evaluated.
In summary, it was found that the deformation of a specific point within a particular load region on the floor covering influences the performance of the floor in regards to daily safety and comfortableness. The relationship between various floor performances and the deformation characteristics of each floor covering was quantified. The results of this research can be effectively used by developers to appropriately specify floors which satisfy a range of floor performances.
