Engineering modeling of traffic noise in shielded areas in cities

A computational study of road traffic noise in cities is presented. Based on numerical boundary-element calculations of canyon-to-canyon propagation, an efficient engineering algorithm is developed to calculate the effect of multiple reflections in street canyons. The algorithm is supported by a room-acoustical analysis of the reverberant sound fields in the source and receiver canyons. Using the algorithm, a simple model for traffic noise in cities is developed. Noise maps and exposure distributions of the city of Amsterdam are calculated with the model, and for comparison also with an engineering model that is currently used for traffic noise impact assessments in cities. Considerable differences between the two model predictions are found for shielded buildings with day-evening-night levels of 40-60 dB at the facades. Further, an analysis is presented of level differences between the most and the least exposed facades of buildings. Large level differences are found for buildings directly exposed to traffic noise from nearby roads. It is shown that by a redistribution of traffic flow around these buildings, one can achieve low sound levels at quiet sides and a corresponding reduction in the percentage of highly annoyed inhabitants from typically 23% to 18%.