Noise Insulation Performance of Buildings Near Airports: Measurement Issues and Perspectives

This paper describes how, for nearly 15 years, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has been sponsoring retrofit noise insulation treatment of residences, schools and places of worship that are experiencing day-night average sound level (DNL) noise exposure at or above 65 dB from airport operations. The FAA program requires performance testing in the form of pre-construction and post-construction acoustical measurements in order to demonstrate compliance with a maximum post-construction interior DNL noise exposure standard of 45 dB and a minimum post-construction A-weighted sound level improvement (NLR) standard of 5 dB. Design of the measurement plan and method is left to the individual acoustical consultant for each airport project; the FAA specifies no measurement standards. Either stationary artificial sound sources or actual aircraft flyovers are used to measure the sound reduction properties of the buildings. The resulting sound reduction data are found to vary considerably within each program as well as among programs. This paper reviews various measurement techniques, evaluates their strengths and weaknesses, and presents recommendations for adjusting data results for signal-to-noise. Measurement data are sensitive to the signal-to-noise ratio in the measurement environment, and an empirical adjustment method is presented for A-weighted measurement results.

• Corporate Authors:

  Institute of Noise Control Engineering

  Iowa State University, 210 Marston Hall
  Ames, IA  United States  50011-2153

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Freytag, John C
• Conference:
  • Noise-Con 04. The 2004 National Conference on Noise Control Engineering
  • Location: Baltimore Maryland, United States
  • Date: 2004-7-12 to 2004-7-14
• Publication Date: 2004

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: CD-ROM
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 741-744
• Monograph Title: Noise-Con 04. The 2004 National Conference on Noise Control Engineering

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Aircraft noise; Airport noise; Damping (Engineering); Measurement; Noise control; Noise sources; Sound level; Sound level meters; Sound transmission; Structures
• Uncontrolled Terms: Noise measurement
• Subject Areas: Aviation; Bridges and other structures; Environment; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01054375
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Jul 26 2007 11:16AM