ACOUSTICS FOR AN UNBUILT

ENVIRONMENT

MOIN HASAN
AYAZ AHMAD KHAN
KHAN ASIM REHAMNI
 Noise

Definition of Noise – Unwanted Sound

• Sound becomes unwanted when it interferes with normal activities such

as sleeping, conversation or recreation. Studies have found that noise
can cause adverse effects on mental health.
• Community noise problems are caused by transportation sources.
• Noise is environmental pollution and can be a threat to the quality of life.
 Understanding of Basic Terms

• ACOUSTICS
Acoustics is the interdisciplinary science that deals with the study of all
mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including vibration,
sound, ultrasound and infrasound.
• ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY
Acoustic ecology, sometimes called eco acoustics or soundscape
studies, is a discipline studying the relationship, mediated through sound,
between living beings and their environment.
• SOUNDSCAPE
Soundscape, is an investigation and development of sound as medium that
interconnects an intrinsic relation between sound and its location,
galvanizing acoustics with the contemporary of the social realm, and the
environmental tensions sound versus noise inherent between the producer
versus consumer.
 Understanding of Basic Terms

• MAPPING
It refers to locational mapping of certain isolation of sounds that interplay
the common grounds of spatial divergence within a community, the
proposal to extract sounds versus noise from cosmopolitan locations.

Isolating the sounds and mapping the directional sense of each sound
versus the environment through Visual Video Studies taped on location,
and presentation of sound effects and audio recordings made through the
cityscape as an urbanistic intrinsic investigation on the incentives of sound
that produces through human and electronic intervention.

Mapping sound is forming a place where sound becomes as much a part of

auditory experience as the material of sound itself. Mapping
communication is the mapping the sounds which cannot be built, but
effected by the built.
 General Introduction

• A far larger number of people live in the rural, suburban, and urban areas
more distant from the transportation systems. They are exposed to what,
for most of the residents within each area, are noise environments that
are quite acceptable. Even here the sound levels range from below 30 dB
(A) to as high as 65 or 70 dB (A).

• Some people live within 15 feet of the right-of-way of major highways,

where the outdoor noise levels may be above 90 dB(A).

• Many suburban and suburban rural residents live along the right-of-way
of major interstate highways and local freeways where even at 100 or 200
feet the sound levels approach 90 dB (A).

(Source: Metropolitan Acoustic Environments and Use of Vegetation in Noise Control - Range of Sound Levels In Outdoor Environment

by LEWIS S. GOODFRIEND, Lewis S. Goodfriend & Associates, 7 Saddle Road, Cedar Knolls, N. J. 07927.)
Components Generating Noise in an
Unbuilt Environment
 Urban
UrbanScenario by 2025
Scenario By 2025
Note:
This map shows the population of urban agglomerations with 10 million people or
more in 2011 and their projected urban population by 2025. We can also see how
much their urban population has grown since 1970. While cities such as Tokyo
appear to have the largest urban population by 2025, in actual fact, cities such as
Lagos, Delhi and Shanghai are expected to register a higher urban population
growth than others. This is evident by the thicker blue rings indicated on the map.
Singapore is not in this list as its urban population is under 10 million.
a look at
Urbanisation
world’s first megacity*, it is now taking just decades for
new megacities to emerge. The scale and speed of
urbanisation* is unprecedented. In 40 years’ time, three-
quarters of the world’s population will be city dwellers.
This has a profound impact on the ecological balance
of our planet and human conditions.
Noise - Thresholds

When determining if a site is affected by noise. We must consider :

• Major Roadways within 1000 feet.

• Railroads within 3000 feet.
• Civil airports within 5 miles
• Military airfields within 15 miles

• Representation of noise emissions:

Point (a vehicle).
Line (a highway).
Surface (ambient noise generated by a set of streets) sources.
Noise Levels - Decibels
120 Aircraft at take off
110

100 Pneumatic drill at 1 meter

90 Lorry, motorcycle, underground train
80 Busy crossroads
70 Noise level near a motorway
60 Busy street through open windows
50 Busy street through closed windows
40
30 Quiet room
20 Broadcasting studio
10 Desert
0
 Major Roadways

Major Highways

Busy Roads

Major Roadways (Heavily Traveled Streets) can be defined by the average

daily traffic (ADT)
Freeways/Highways - 40,000+ average daily traffic

Major Arteries - 25,000 to 40,000 ADT

Arteries – 10,000 to 25,000 ADT
 Road Transportation Noise

• Road accounts for approximately 70% of total noise emissions by

transportation. It must be noted that different road transportation
modes have different scales of noise emissions.

• Main sources of noise come from the engine and the friction of the
wheels over the road surface. Further, travel speed and the intensity of
traffic are directly linked with its intensity of noise. For instance, one
truck moving at 90 km/hr makes as much noise as 28 cars moving at the
same speed.
 Road Transportation Noise

• Ambient noise is a frequent result of road transportation in urban areas.

The addition of all the noise generated by cars, trucks and buses creates
a permanent ambient noise (ranging from 45 to 65 db) that impairs the
quality of life in urban areas and thus the property values of residences.
Nearby road arterials, ambient noise is replaced by direct noise and
vibrations. The acoustics created by the surrounding environment (hills,
buildings, trees, open space, etc.) alleviate or worsen local conditions.

• Noise level grows arithmetically with speed. For instance a car traveling
at 20 km/hr emits 55 db of rolling noise, at 40 km/hr 65 db, at 80 km/hr
75 db and at 100 km/hr 80 db. Available evidence underlines that
around 45% of the population in developed countries live in high levels
of noise intensity (over 55 db) generated by road transportation. Along
major highway arterials in inter-urban areas, noise emissions are likely
to alter the living environment of wildlife species.
 Noise Generated By a Moving
Car

90

80

70

60
Noise (dB)

50

40

30

20

10

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Speed (km / hr)
 Road Transportation Noise

~ 50 db(A)
Ambient noise 100 m

~ 65 db(A)

Barrier effect
~ 80 db(A) Specific vehicle
 Railways

Railroads within 3,000 feet

Contact the railway company itself or local planning department.
If site is close to a railroad crossing, make sure to get the crossing
identification number/s
~ 55 db(A)

~ 85 db(A)
500 m

~ 70 db(A)
 Rail Transportation
Noise

• Rail accounts for 10% of total noise emissions by transportation. Noise

comes from the engine (mostly diesel), the friction of wheels over the
rails, and whistle blowing. Furthermore, when trains are moving at high
speed, aeroacoustic (a branch of acoustics that studies noise generation
via either turbulent fluid motion or aerodynamic forces interacting with
surfaces) noise becomes more important than other sources. Depending
of the train aerodynamics, noise emissions are from 50 to 80 times the
logarithm of train speed and become significant at speeds higher than
200 km/hr.
 Rail Transportation
Noise

• When rail / truck transshipment is involved, the convergence of trucks

towards rail yards provides an additional source of noise related to rail
transportation activities.

• Around 3% of the population may be exposed to high noise levels from

rail transportation in OECD countries. The level of exposure is obviously
related to the importance and location of rail transportation
infrastructure. The most important noise impacts of rail operations are
in urban areas where the majority transshipment functions are
performed. Furthermore, rail terminals are often located in the central
and high density areas of cities.
 Airports

• Civil Airports – Contact the airport of concern and request

the most current maps showing airport layout plan and noise contours and, if
available, a noise exposure forecast.
• Military Airports – Noise contours should be
published as a part of the Air Installation
Compatible Use Zone (AICUZ Study).
4 km
~ 60 db(A)

: ~ 90 db(A) ~ 110 db(A)

 Air Transportation Noise

• Air transportation accounts for 20% of total noise emissions by

transportation. As air transportation took a growing importance in inter-city
transportation and that jet engines were predominantly used, noise
emissions have increased significantly to the point of becoming a major
concern near airports.
• Noise comes from the jet engine, the aerodynamic friction and ground craft
operations. Even if the turbofan is the least noisy jet propulsion technology
available, aircrafts are an acute source of noise in several urban areas. Noise
from aircraft operation is known to have direct impact on property values
around airports. This effect is distributed along major approach and take off
lanes.
• The establishment of heavily used flight paths between major cities creates
noise corridors where ambient noise is almost prevalent. This is particularly
noted when those corridors are over densely populated areas.
 Air Takeoff Noise

Can-RJ

DC10

B777-200

B747-100

B747-400

A320

60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105
 Free field: excess attenuation

Other factors causing additional attenuation during

outdoors progation are:
• air absorption
• absorption due to presence of vegetation, foliage, etc.
• metereological conditions (temperature gradients, wind speed
gradients, rain, snow, fog, etc.)
• obstacles (hills, buildings, noise barriers, etc.)
:All these effects are combined into an additional term L, in dB, which is
appended to the free field formula:
• LI = Lp = LW - 20 log r - 11 + 10 log Q - L (dB)
Most of these effects are relevant only at large distance form the source.
The exception is shielding (screen effect), which instead is maximum when
the receiver is very close to the screen
 Effect of Sound on Surface

:
 Excess attenuation: air
absorption
Air absorption coefficients in dB/km (from ISO 9613-1
standard) for different combinations of frequency,
temperature and humidity:

Frequency (octave bands)

T (°C) RH (%) 63 125 250 500 1000 2000 4000 8000

10 70 0,12 0,41 1,04 1,93 3,66 9,66 32,8 117,0

15 20 0,27 0,65 1,22 2,70 8,17 28,2 88,8 202,0

:
15 50 0,14 0,48 1,22 2,24 4,16 10,8 36,2 129,0

15 80 0,09 0,34 1,07 2,40 4,15 8,31 23,7 82,8

20 70 0,09 0,34 1,13 2,80 4,98 9,02 22,9 76,6

30 70 0,07 0,26 0,96 3,14 7,41 12,7 23,1 59,3

 Example of a discrete line
source: cars on the road
Distance a between two vehicles is proportional to their
speed
a  V / N  1000 [m]

In which V is speed in km/h and

Sound power of a vehicle vs. speed
N is the number of vehicles
passing in 1 h 99

The sound power level LWp of a 97

single vehicle is:

Lwp (dBA)
95

- Constant up to 50 km/h 93

- Increases linearly between 50 91

km/h and 100 km/h 89

200
10 100
(3dB/doubling) Velocita' (km/h)

- Above 100 km/h increases with

the square of V (6dB/doubling)
 Example of a discrete line
source: cars on the road

Hence there is an “optimal” speed, which causes the

minimum value of SPL, which lies around 70 km/h
• Modern vehicles have this “optimal speed” at even larger speeds, for
example it is 85 km/h for the Toyota Prius
Sound power per meter vs. speed
65
64
63
62
61
Lw' (dBA)

60
59
58
57
56
55
10 100 200
Velocita' (km/h)
THANK YOU