Relationship Between Material Characteristics of Asphalt Mixtures and Highway Noise

Traffic noise is a main source of total environmental noise. The major component of traffic noise is the interaction between tire and pavement. One way of reducing traffic noise is to engineer pavements such that tire-pavement noise is minimized. The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between the tire-pavement noise generation (and absorption) and the material characteristics of asphalt pavements. This paper presents the impact of material mix design characteristics, as well as linear viscoelastic properties on sound absorption. To focus on the relationship between the noise and the internal material characteristics, a novel laboratory tire-pavement noise measurement system was developed. Although the individual material characteristics did not have an appreciable influence on the damping of sound, a strong correlation between the sound pressure level and a combination of several material characteristics was observed.