Optimization design method for noise barrier tunnel junction on merging lanes using quad meshes

Abstract

ABSTRACT Noise barrier tunnels (NBTs) are road facilities installed to reduce road traffic noise. Although building information modeling (BIM) has been widely used in civil engineering, alignment problems must first be addressed for BIM to be applied in transportation infrastructure; this is because unlike buildings, roads are linear. The array of tunnel frames based on the centerlines of individual roads cause the discontinuity of components at junctions of two NBTs. This leads to structural instabilities and poor airtightness, which in turn cause vulnerabilities such as noise and water leakage. To address these issues, this study proposes an optimization design method for NBT junctions using quad meshes. We created a Y-branch topology of NBTs using quad meshes, performed data arrangement using mesh segmentation and mesh reorder, and used the results to optimize the design via performance analysis. During mesh segmentation and mesh reorder, an interface in which the user directly enters curves to improve the efficiency of the algorithm was also developed. In addition, a case study of a main road with eight lanes that merged with a sub road with one lane was conducted, data arrangement was performed successfully, and a BIM-compliant model that used various geometric data was generated through optimization.