Simulation and Analysis of Road Traffic Noise among Urban Buildings Using Spatial Subdivision-Based Beam Tracing Method

Haibo Wang,Hongjun Cui,Ming Cai

doi:10.3390/ijerph16142491

Abstract

In order to realize the simulation and evaluation of road traffic noise among urban buildings, a spatial subdivision-based beam-tracing method is proposed in this study. First, the road traffic source is divided into sets of point sources and described with the help of vehicle emission model. Next, for each pair of source and receiver, spatial subdivision-based beam-tracing method is used in noise paths generation. At last, noise distribution can be got by noise calculation of all receivers considering the complex transmission among urban buildings. A measurement experiment with a point source is carried out to validate the accuracy of the method; the 0.8 m height and 2.5-m height average errors are about 0.9 dB and 1.2 dB, respectively. Moreover, traffic noise analysis under different building layouts and heights are presented by case applications and conclusions can be reached: (1) Different patterns result in different noise distributions and patterns designed as self-protective can lead to an obvious noise abatement for rear buildings. Noise differences between the front and rear buildings are about 7–12 dB with different patterns. (2) Noise value might not show a linear variation along with the height as shielding of different layers is various in reality.

Highlights

IntroductionAs one of the significant parts of traffic pollution, traffic noise has become an issue of concern in urban areas [1,2]
Urban and transportation development is having a huge effect on the human living environment.As one of the significant parts of traffic pollution, traffic noise has become an issue of concern in urban areas [1,2]
In the urban buildings area, the calculation region was set as a series of computational grids and the sound pressure level (SPL) of every note can be simulated

Summary

Introduction

As one of the significant parts of traffic pollution, traffic noise has become an issue of concern in urban areas [1,2]. It is important to avoid unwanted sound and reduce reducing the noise exposure from the main sources: railway traffic [15], airports [16,17], industrial and ports [18,19] and road traffic [20]. Urban building areas which are usually with big road traffic, are the main places where people live and relax for most of the time. Noise simulation and evaluation in building areas are very important

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion