Hollow ceramic brick walls in Southern Europe dwellings: Limitations and future perspectives of use

Hollow clay brick walls are one of the most common materials used for building construction, in many southern Europe countries like Italy or Spain. This particular way of construction is based on several different factors: raw material availability, thermal insulation requirements, need to reduce weight or simply 'tradition'. Future new building regulations, looking for a higher level of comfort in dwellings, are increasing the sound insulation requirements in dwellings (For instance, in Spain from 45 dB in laboratory up to 50 dB in situ). Current hollow clay bricks are pushed to improve their acoustical features to compete with other materials. This paper presents some experiences about the procedures for optimisation of the sound insulation of hollow brick walls, based on the combination of experimental work developed in laboratory and using mathematical models.