Validating aircraft noise models: Aviation environmental design tool at Heathrow

Abstract

Aircraft noise models are fundamental tools for noise abatement, control, enforcement, evaluation, and policy-making. Validation of aircraft noise models is necessary to ensure their reliability and credibility, particularly given their significant impact on society, the economy, and public health. However, validating such models is often a complex undertaking, and an acceptable validation methodology still needs to be developed. In this study, the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT) aircraft noise model is validated by correlating the calculated and measured noise levels for a specific aircraft flying in a particular flight path at Heathrow Airport. The validation results suggest that the AEDT noise model estimates the actual noise level quite accurately for landings, with a variation less than 2 dB(A), but might be inaccurate for takeoffs for certain aircraft types, with variations reaching 10 dB(A), resulting in a considerable difference between the measured and calculated noise levels.