Computational and Experimental Characterization of the Noise Impact from Aircraft Operations around Hong Kong International Airport

Abstract

As part of a more global research effort towards a greener aviation, the present study focuses on assessing the ground noise impact from air traffic operations around Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA). Owing to the unique specificities (and subsequent methodological complexities) pertaining to the local aviation scene in Hong Kong (e.g., complex airspace, non-standard aircraft types and/or operations, significant weather variations), both computational and experimental means are deployed, to better characterize the ground noise incurred by aircraft flying in and out of HKIA. From a computational perspective, real-life situations involving representative aircraft operations and meteorological conditions are simulated using a pre-existing aircraft noise prediction platform, which relies on two different computational approaches (semi-empirical and fully computational) and had been previously validated through canonical benchmark cases. From an experimental viewpoint, dedicated field tests are conducted in two locations of Hong Kong city, to measure the ground noise signals incurred by actual aircraft departing from or approaching HKIA. In both cases, comparative analyses are conducted to highlight how far the ground noise impact by aircraft may depend on their characteristics (type) and/or operational conditions (flightpaths, weather, etc.). In a second time, most of the field test experiments are simulated using the aircraft noise prediction platform, to further benchmark and validate its relevance in regard to the specificities pertaining to Hong Kong. A straight comparison between the experimental and computational results reveals a fairly good agreement between the measurements and their digital twins, especially for what concerns departure flights. It is shown how accounting more accurately for the meteorological conditions may help improving the predictions.