Abstract The influence of acoustic radiation is considered in the prediction of noise attenuation effect of sound barrier, which provides a theoretical reference for further improving the insertion loss of sound barrier. Based on the theory of thin plate vibration, the vibration mode and natural frequencies of sound barrier under arbitrary boundary conditions are established by using two-dimensional beam function method, and the forced vibration response of the sound barrier is calculated based on the modal superposition method. MATLAB software (MathWorks Company, Natick, Massachusetts, USA) is used to calculate the natural frequencies and the radiated sound power level of the sound barrier, which indicated that the sound radiation caused by external excitation would significantly increase the sound pressure level at the received point, which should be considered as one of the influencing factors in the prediction of noise attenuation effect. The influence of diverse structural parameters on the radiated acoustic power is compared, providing an excellent reference for the design of sound barrier with low noise.