The use of in-situ test method EN 1793-6 for measuring the airborne sound insulation of noise barriers

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2017-01-15Rights
© 2016 Elsevier. Reproduced in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Peer-Reviewed
YesAccepted for publication
2016-09-05
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The in situ measurement of the airborne sound insulation, as outlined in EN 1793-6:2012, is becoming a common means of quantifying the performance of road traffic noise reducing devices. Newly installed products can be tested to reveal any construction defects and periodic testing can help to identify long term weaknesses in a design. The method permits measurements to be conducted in the presence of background noise from traffic, through the use of impulse response measurement techniques, and is sensitive to sound leakage. Factors influencing the measured airborne sound insulation are discussed, with reference to measurements conducted on a range of traffic noise barriers located around Auckland, New Zealand. These include the influence of sound leakage in the form of hidden defects and visible air gaps, signal-to-noise ratio, and noise barrier height. The measurement results are found to be influenced by the presence of hidden defects and small air gaps, with larger air gaps making the choice of measurement position critical. A signal-to-noise ratio calculation method is proposed, and is used to show how the calculated airborne sound insulation varies with signal-to-noise ratio. It is shown that the measurement results are influenced by barrier height, through the need for reduced length Adrienne temporal windows to remove the diffraction components, prohibiting the direct comparison of results from noise barriers with differing heights.Version
Accepted ManuscriptCitation
Bull J, Watts G and Pearse J (2016) The use of in-situ test method EN 1793-6 for measuring the airborne sound insulation of noise barriers. Applied Acoustics. 116: 82-86.Link to Version of Record
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2016.09.006Type
Articleae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apacoust.2016.09.006