Title: Impact identification of traffic flow and road age on traffic noise emission via an approach of relative traffic noise pressure index

Authors: Liming Dai; Kai Huang; Matthew Yao

Addresses: Sino-Canada Research Center for Noise and Vibration Control at Xiamen University of Technology and the University of Regina, Xiamen, 361000, China; Industrial Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada ' Sino-Canada Research Center for Noise and Vibration Control at Xiamen University of Technology and the University of Regina, Xiamen, 361000, China; Industrial Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada ' Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo, Ontario, N2L 3G1, Canada

Abstract: In this study, a series of field experiments are conducted on a highway to identify the effects of traffic flow and pavement operation time on traffic noise emission. The traffic noise at different times and pavement durations is investigated. Logarithmic functions are established in the investigations to fit the measurements of traffic flow and traffic noise at two measurement sites. An indicator named the relative traffic noise pressure index is proposed for quantitatively evaluating the effects of the road pavement ageing on traffic noise emission. The results of the research indicated that the repaved road surface may effectively reduce the traffic noise level when the operation time of the road surface is relatively short. It is also shown in the present research that the relative traffic noise pressure index proposed is an effective measure for evaluating the traffic noise with respect to the traffic flow and road pavement ageing.

Keywords: acoustic measurement; traffic noise; highway pavement; traffic flow; noise mitigation; pavement ageing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVNV.2018.099794

International Journal of Vehicle Noise and Vibration, 2018 Vol.14 No.4, pp.301 - 319

Received: 13 Mar 2018
Accepted: 04 Nov 2018
Published online: 22 May 2019 *

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