EXPERIMENT 3:

Title: TRAFFIC NOISE MEASUREMENT

Objectives:

After conducting this experiment student should be able to:

1. Understand the fundamental concept in noise pollution

2. Understand the technique used in traffic noise measurement
3. Investigate some of the factors that can lead to noise pollution

Introduction:

The word "noise" is derived from the Latin word "nausea," meaning seasickness. Noise is among
the most pervasive pollutants today. Noise can be defined as any sound independent of loudness
that can produce an undesired physiological or psychological effect in an individual and that may
interfere with the social ends of an individual group. Noise from road traffic, jet planes, jet skis,
garbage trucks, construction equipment, manufacturing processes, lawn mowers, leaf blowers,
and boom boxes, to name a few, are among the audible litter that are routinely broadcast into the
air.

Noise pollution does negatively affect us and the environment. In humans, aside from
annoyance, it's been shown that exposure to moderately high levels of noise for an eight hour
period can increase blood pressure and cause other cardiac issues - even if the person is not
particularly consciously disturbed. Noise pollution can also cause gastric problems. Sometimes a
person doesn't even realize their body is stressed by noise until the noise is no longer present -
they just feel a sudden sense of relief.
 Exposure to excessively loud noise over long periods can also lead to partial deafness.
Approximately 10 percent of people living in industrialized areas have substantial hearing loss
and youngsters in the USA have an impaired hearing rate 250% higher than their parents and
grandparents.

Many environmental noise measurements are made for planning purposes, to check noise
levels against local noise ordinances or to investigate noise nuisance complaints between
neighbors. Results are usually taken on property boundaries or at specific positions laid down in
the appropriate measurement protocols (or ordinances). When nuisance complaints are being
investigated it may be necessary to make measurements inside houses or apartments to assess the
noise levels between party walls. Different noise limits may apply at certain times of the day and
night to reflect people's sensitivity to disturbances during the day. Simple sound level meters
such as the CEL-254 or CEL-320S can be used.

Sound is produced by the vibration of bodies or air molecules and is transmitted as a

longitudinal wave motion. It is, therefore, a form of mechanical energy and is measured in
energy-related units. The sound output of a source is measured in watts and the intensity of
sound at a point in space is defined by the rate of energy flow per unit area, measured in watts
per ms. Intensity is proportional to the mean square of the sound pressure and, as the range of
this variable is so wide, it is usual to express its value in decibels (dB)a. Because the effects of
noise depend strongly upon frequency of sound pressure oscillation, spectrum analysis is
important in noise measurement.

Sound exposure level - in decibel - is not much used in industrial noise measurement.
Instead, the time-averaged value is used. This is the time average sound level or as it is usually
called the 'equivalent continuous sound level' has the formal symbol LAT. These mainly, follow
the formal ISO acoustic definitions qv. However, for mainly historical reasons, LAT is commonly
referred to as Leq. Formally, LAT is 20 times the base 10 logarithm of the ratio of a root-mean-
square A-weighted sound pressure during a stated time interval to the reference sound pressure
and there is no time constant involved. To measure LAT an integrating-averaging meter is needed;
 this in concept takes the sound exposure, divides it by time and then takes the logarithm of the
result.

Leq is the constant noise level that would result in the same total sound energy being
produced over a given period. It can be measured in either A, C or Z (Linear) modes.
Leq can be described mathematically by the following equation:

Where:

• Leq is the equivalent continuous linear weighted sound pressure level re 20µPa,

determined over a measured time interval Tm (secs)

• P(t) is the instantaneous sound pressure of the sound signal

• P0 is the reference sound pressure of 20µPa

When the instantaneous A-weighted sound pressure (PA) of the sound signal is introduced the
the equivalent continuous A-weighted sound pressure level determined over time interval Tm is
as follows:

In practise when measuring noise it is possible to take Leq readings, with your instrument, of
short duration, ie <5 minutes, providing all variations of noise emissions are covered. If the
measured environment changes greatly then the longer the Leq measurement is taken the more
accurate the measurement.
Adding Leq values requires taking an anti-log of each value. The addition can be performed as
shown:
Method:

1. The test site

The appropriate test site was choosed

The characteristic of the test site were:

• test site must substantially level, the surface dry and its texture should
be such that is does not cause excessive tyre noise
• Within a radius of 50m around the center of the track, the space shall
be free of large reflecting object.
• The background noise shall be at least 10dB below that produced by
the vehicle under test.
•

The microphone should be set up at height 1.2m above the ground

which is the height ear level of an average human height.

The distance from microphone to reference line on test track shall be

7.5m as shown in the figure below:

Figure: Measurement set-up

Our site is at Main Gate of UPSI (in front Poliklinik Syifa)
2. The sound level meter

The sound level meter was set up as follows:

• Set response to Fast (F) so that it can measure not too rapidly
fluctuating noise levels.
• Set function to A weighting where very low frequencies are filters
quite severely compared to B and C weighting.
• Select high range where this range covers sound levels between 60 and
120dBA.

At test site take sound level was measurement at both sides of the road
in each five minutes interval within one hour. The result was record.

At the same time the traffic composition was record and flow at each
side of the road. Traffic composition may include car, van, light
truck<3.5 ton, truck or lorry > 3.5 ton, buses and motorcycles.

A graph which consists of time (min) against sound level (dBA) was plotted
and sound pressure average (Lp) and equivalent continuous equal energy level
(Leq) were calculated based on the given equations.
RESULT

Instrumental site: Main gate of UPSI ( In front the Poliklinik Syifa)

dBA Reading

Time, t (min) dBA East Entrance UPSI

( noise )
5 67.0
10 71.6
15 66.6
20 64.3
25 71.3
30 68.7
35 71.1
40 70.1
45 65.9
50 70.0
55 68.0
60 66.4

Traffic Composition

Time, t Type of Vehicles

(min) car van motorcycle lorry jeep
5 15 - 25 - -
10 26 - 45 1 -
15 24 - 20 - -
20 13 2 18 - -
25 11 1 19 - -
30 16 2 23 - 1
35 25 1 40 - 1
40 5 3 16 - -
45 19 - 23 - -
50 7 - 18 - 1
55 15 - 17 - -
60 9 - 16 - -
CALCULATION

i) Lp = 20 log [ 1 / N X ∑ [ log-1 ( Lj / 20 ) ] ]

Lp = 20 log [ 1 / 12 X ∑ [ log -1 ( 67.0 / 20 ) + log-1 ( 71.6 / 20 ) + log-1 (66.6/20 ) +log-

1
( 64.3 / 20 ) + log-1 ( 71.3 / 20 ) + log-1 ( 71.1/ 20 ) + log-1 ( 70.1 / 20 ) + log-1
( 65.9 / 20 ) + log-1 ( 70.0 / 20 ) + log-1 ( 68.0 / 20 ) + log-1 ( 66.4 / 20 ) + log-1
( 68.7/ 20 )

= 68.72 dB

ii) Leq = 10 log [ ∑ [ 10 Li/10 x t i] ], where t i = t / 60

Leq = 10 log [ ∑ [ ( 10 67.0/10 x 5/60) + ( 10 71.6/10 x 10/60) + ( 10 66.6/10 x 15/60) + ( 10

64.3/10
x 20/60) + ( 10 71.3/10 x 25/60) + ( 10 68.7/10 x 30/60) + ( 10 71.1/10 x 35/60)
+ ( 10 70.1/10 x 40/60) + ( 10 65.9/10 x 45/60) + ( 10 70.0/10 x 50/60) +( 10 68.0/10 x
55/60) +( 10 66.4/10 x 60/60)

= 76.98 dB.
DISCUSSION

• Noise pollution (or environmental noise) is displeasing human-, animal- or machine-

created sound that disrupts the activity or balance of human or animal life. A common
form of noise pollution is from transportation, principally motor vehicles.

• Noise health effects are both health and behavioural in nature. The unwanted sound is
called noise. This unwanted sound can damage physiological and psychological health.

• Noise pollution can cause annoyance and aggression, hypertension, high stress levels,
tinnitus, hearing loss, sleep disturbances, and other harmful effects. Furthermore, stress
and hypertension are the leading causes to health problems, whereas tinnitus can lead to
forgetfulness, severe depression and at times panic attacks.

• High noise levels can contribute to cardiovascular effects and exposure to moderately
high levels during a single eight hour period causes a statistical rise in blood pressure of
five to ten points and an increase in stress and vasoconstriction leading to the increased
blood pressure noted above as well as to increased incidence of coronary artery disease.

• Noise can have a detrimental effect on animals by causing stress, increasing risk of
mortality by changing the delicate balance in predator/prey detection and avoidance, and
by interfering with their use of sounds in communication especially in relation to
reproduction and in navigation. Acoustic overexposure can lead to temporary or
permanent loss of hearing.

• An impact of noise on animal life is the reduction of usable habitat that noisy areas may
cause, which in the case of endangered species may be part of the path to extinction. One
 of the best known cases of damage caused by noise pollution is the death of certain
species of beached whales, brought on by the loud sound of military sonar.

• Sound level meters measure sound pressure level and are commonly used in noise
pollution studies for the quantification of almost any noise, but especially for industrial,
environmental and aircraft noise. However, the reading given by a sound level meter does
not correlate well to human-perceived loudness; for this a loudness meter is needed.

• The standard sound level meter is more correctly called an exponentially averaging sound
level meter as the AC signal from the microphone is converted to DC by a root-mean-
square (RMS) circuit and thus it must have a time-constant of integration; today referred
to as time-weighting.

• The output of the RMS circuit is linear in voltage and is passed through a logarithmic
circuit to give readout linear in decibels (dB). This is 20 times the base 10 logarithm of
the ratio of a given root-mean-square sound pressure to the reference sound pressure.
Root-mean-square sound pressure being obtained with a standard frequency weighting
and standard time weighting.

• The frequency range of human hearing is generally considered as 20 – 20,000 Hz. The
upper range varies greatly among individuals and decreases with age and noise exposure.
The amplitude of our sensation ranges from the threshold of hearing (~0 dB) to
thresholds of discomfort and pain (above 140 dB).

• In our experiment on this sound pollution at UPSI Pintu Utama road, equivalent
continuous sound level, Leq measured is 68.72 dB. This level is safe for human being and
animals.
 • Noise pollution can be reduce by raise awareness about noise pollution such create,
collect, and distribute information and resources regarding noise pollution and distribute
its to public. Beside that, we can strengthen laws, governmental efforts to control noise
pollution and also assist activists working against noise pollution.

CONCLUSION

Equivalent continuous sound level, Leq measured in our noise pollution experiment is 68.72 dB.

REFERENCESS

Anonymous. NPC Noise Pollution Clearinghouse. from http://www.nonoise.org/index.htm.

Access on March 22, 2009.
Anonymous. Noise Pollution. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_pollution. Access on
March 22, 2009.
Anonymous. Sound Level Meter. from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Sound_Level_Meter.
Access on March 22, 2009.
Anynamous. Environmental Noise Measurements. Access from
http://www.casellausa.com/en/cel/environm.htm. Access on March 22, 2009.