Traffic noise is a major problem in all large cities and the sound propagation in the urban context is reinforced by the multiple reflections on the building façades. The surface acoustical characteristics (e.g. referred to roads, pedestrian traffic areas, building facades, building surfaces in general) affect the noise propagation in the urban environment. Through a better outdoor design and management (e.g. by means of green areas, porous asphalt, speed control), or building refurbishment actions (acoustic plaster, absorbing shading devices), the increasing of surface absorption could be useful to mitigate noise environmental pollution and therefore to reduce the sound levels in the proximity of the building façades for their entire height. The reduction of the noise levels outside the buildings would determine lower indoor noise levels and therefore a better situation, without direct actions on the building walls. Through a series of noise propagation calculations in urban environments, by means of a three-dimensional simulation model, the influence of some configurations, and the potential impact of some intervention solutions, will be quantified. In the first stage of the research, the analysis of a simplified model is conducted, to evaluate the influence of noise on the buildings facades, based on a simplified geometry of the urban environment and of the surface acoustic features. The same analysis is validated by means of a more detailed model, corresponding to the configuration of an existing built area, to verify if the analyses performed by means of the simplified model can be extended to more complex layouts. Successively, calculations are developed to quantify the noise levels that occur with different acoustic (absorption of facades, soil, asphalt, or green elements) and geometric (road width, buildings height, presence of balconies, etc.) characteristics, to show the potential reduction given by some interventions. Solutions that can lead to a more significant reduction of the noise in correspondence of the facades are then discussed.

Noise reduction interventions in the urban environment as a form of control of indoor noise levels

MAGRINI, ANNA;LISOT, ALINE
2015-01-01

Abstract

Traffic noise is a major problem in all large cities and the sound propagation in the urban context is reinforced by the multiple reflections on the building façades. The surface acoustical characteristics (e.g. referred to roads, pedestrian traffic areas, building facades, building surfaces in general) affect the noise propagation in the urban environment. Through a better outdoor design and management (e.g. by means of green areas, porous asphalt, speed control), or building refurbishment actions (acoustic plaster, absorbing shading devices), the increasing of surface absorption could be useful to mitigate noise environmental pollution and therefore to reduce the sound levels in the proximity of the building façades for their entire height. The reduction of the noise levels outside the buildings would determine lower indoor noise levels and therefore a better situation, without direct actions on the building walls. Through a series of noise propagation calculations in urban environments, by means of a three-dimensional simulation model, the influence of some configurations, and the potential impact of some intervention solutions, will be quantified. In the first stage of the research, the analysis of a simplified model is conducted, to evaluate the influence of noise on the buildings facades, based on a simplified geometry of the urban environment and of the surface acoustic features. The same analysis is validated by means of a more detailed model, corresponding to the configuration of an existing built area, to verify if the analyses performed by means of the simplified model can be extended to more complex layouts. Successively, calculations are developed to quantify the noise levels that occur with different acoustic (absorption of facades, soil, asphalt, or green elements) and geometric (road width, buildings height, presence of balconies, etc.) characteristics, to show the potential reduction given by some interventions. Solutions that can lead to a more significant reduction of the noise in correspondence of the facades are then discussed.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11571/1199386
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