Development of a Reference Energy Mean Emission Level Traffic Noise Models for Bituminous Pavement for Mid-Sized Cities in India.

Abstract

Present study is towards the development of the Reference Energy Mean Emission Level (REMEL) of vehicle types involved in the mixed traffic flow on the bituminous pavements on Indian roads for a mid-sized city. Five locations were identified in Kanpur urban area under free flow traffic and good pavement conditions. A total 10700 data sets for 11 vehicle categories were collected from these locations under a sponsored research project being sponsored by Ministry of Education (MoE) and Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoUD), Govt. of India, under the flagship programme of IMPRINT India. The REMEL of every vehicle category was measured using Type-1 Sound Level Meter (SLM) and was placed at a distance of 7.5 meters from the centre of the nearby carriageway while measuring the single vehicle passby event for each category. Noise level and spot speed data for bituminous pavement surface were collected for 11 vehicles categories as bus, truck, tractor-trailer, light commercial vehicle (LCV), 3-wheeler (auto, vikram), motorcycle, e-rickshaw, bicycle, tricycle and horse driven vehicle. Regression analysis was performed to obtain the REMEL equations for prediction of Leq.The study provides an interesting insight to noise emission characteristics of vehicle types for mixed traffic under Indian conditions.