Evaluation of traffic noise in arterial road with different road roughness

There are many sources of road traffic noise which affect the environment. Many engineers have already determined that there are two major sources of road traffic noise. The first is engine noise and the second is the interaction between vehicle tires and the road surface. An evaluation of different road surfaces (roughness) from flexible and rigid pavements was needed to determine the effect of these different surfaces on the propagation of road traffic noise levels, in terms of sound pressure levels of single vehicles. The characteristic of the road surface are the most important factors in propagating this tire road noise when the vehicles are traveling at constant speeds exceeding about 40 km/h. The measurements of sound pressure levels of individual vehicles were carried out on the two types of pavement, with four different surface roughnesses each. Overall, the results of the sound pressure levels in dB (A) of the individual vehicles showed that a vehicle that was running at a higher speed is noisier, and the road that had a higher IRI value, propagated higher values. Comparing rigid and flexible pavements, it was found that the rigid pavement which had a higher IRI value than the flexible pavement did not always produce higher sound pressure levels (dB(A)), so there were other variables that influenced the propagated of sound pressure levels. It was also found that there was no significant difference between the influence of roughness from flexible and rigid pavements on propagated sound pressure levels.