Contribution
Traffic noise propagation into buildings – physics, measurements, and legislation
* Presenting author
Abstract:
Traffic noise is one of the main reasons for annoyance for many people at home and a major cause for sleep disturbance. The European Union and its member states, therefore introduced a number of regulations and standards, which will be harmonized (e.g. with an acoustic classification scheme - ACS) to protect people better from traffic noise (e.g. EU COST Action TU0901). In this paper, the underlying fundamental physics of the noise propagation from the source at a parallel street to an indoor room is briefly described. Furthermore, different measurement campaigns were carried out at HFT Stuttgart to determine the exact propagation of traffic noise to and through the façade into indoor rooms. The results of these measurements were then related to the theoretical findings and to the normative requirements in Germany and other countries. For one specific façade, a comparison was made between measured Dls,2m,nT, R‘45° and R‘tr,s. Finally, also some focus was given to the comparison of the received noise in the rooms in the 1st and 2nd floor. Here, a significant difference could not be found.