Acoustic Analysis as a Part of Risk Management

Abstract

The paper focuses on the area of risk management and includes a safety analysis of individual threats. Noise as a physical factor also belongs among individual hazards. In general, risk management is related to the architecture of an effective management of individual risks (principles, structure and processes), while the control of risk involves the application of this architecture to a particular risk; in this case, the acoustic risk. The paper describes a legislative framework concerning the safety and health protection at work as well as the safety of technical equipment with regard to obligations of the employer prescribed by law. An important part of the paper is the presentation of a guideline for prediction of acoustic risks by means of a system, which is specified for design of the low-noise machines. This methodology is an integrated part of safety analyses in the organisation and it is performed during the risk management process. A new method for proposal of the safe (low-noise) machine equipment is also described in the lecture, taking into consideration the legislative rules concerning the machine safety. Practical examples of the acoustic simulation and classification of the sources of noise in machinery are presented as well. In the conclusion, useful noise reduction tools are proposed in order to eliminate acoustic risks.