Shape-optimal design of graded index sonic crystal noise barriers with line defects
Paper in proceeding, 2013

A graded index sonic crystal gives rise to upward refraction due to a negative sound speed gradient, which progresses with height. However, in addition to upward refraction, these cylinder formations can simultaneously benefit from band-gap phenomena. This paper presents a method to optimise graded index sonic crystals for broadband traffic noise by: (1) organising cylinders in complex formations using natural cubic splines and (2) introducing line defects. All variables were optimised with a multi-objective genetic algorithm, for structures based on horizontally oriented acoustically hard cylinders, located above a perfectly reflecting ground plane. A four-lane outdoor situation, with a traffic scenario consisting of 95 % light and 5 % heavy vehicles driving at 70 km/h has been studied. For such a configuration we obtained a spatially averaged mean reduction of 3.7, 4.3 and 5.4 dBA, with optimised structures covering an effective cross-sectional area of 0.69, 1.25 and 1.45 m2, respectively. It is found that the focussing performance of the studied structures is enhanced by increasing the number of scatterers as a function of height, which effectively represents a negative sound speed gradient. In addition, it is found that the effect of line defects is significant, and that the insertion loss among the studied traffic lanes is reasonably constant.

Outdoor sound propagation

Optimisation

Graded index sonic crystal

Sonic crystal

Author

Bart van der Aa

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Applied Acoustics

Jens Forssén

Chalmers, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Applied Acoustics

42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013: Noise Control for Quality of Life, INTER-NOISE 2013; Innsbruck; Austria; 15 September 2013 through 18 September 2013

Vol. 3 2325-2334
9781632662675 (ISBN)

Areas of Advance

Transport

Building Futures (2010-2018)

Subject Categories

Other Civil Engineering

ISBN

9781632662675

More information

Latest update

11/21/2018