DESIGNATION OF MUSICAL ROAD

AND
THE BENEFITS TO ROAD USER

BY
SITI AISYAH BINTI ISMAIL

This report is submitted as a partial of requirement for the degree of

Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) Civil

UNIVERSITI
TEKNOLOGI MARA
JULY 2021
Table of Contents
CHAPTER ONE ..................................................................................................................................... 3
INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................. 3
1.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND .................................................................................................. 3
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT ........................................................................................................ 3
1.3 OBJECTIVE ............................................................................................................................... 4
1.4 SCOPE OF WORK AND LIMITATION ................................................................................. 4
1.5 SIGNIFICANT STUDY ............................................................................................................. 4
CHAPTER 2 .......................................................................................................................................... 5
LITERATURE REVIEW .................................................................................................................... 5
2.1 INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................... 5
2.2 TYPES OF MUSICAL ROAD AND THE PRODUCTION PRINCIPAL ............................ 5
2.2.1 Cutting groove-based musical roads. ..................................................................................... 5
2.2.2 Raised Pavement Marker—Based Musical Road .................................................................. 6
2.3 ASPHALTOPHONE PROFILE DESIGN ............................................................................... 6
CHAPTER 3 .......................................................................................................................................... 7
METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................... 7
3.1 FRAMEWORK ........................................................................................................................... 7
4.1 EXPECTED RESULT ................................................................................................................ 8
4.2 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................... 8
5.1 GANTT CHART ......................................................................................................................... 9
 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Asphaltophone or also known as musical road is a music instrument made up of a road with
specially designated surface topology, the contact between tyre and patch, and a vehicle itself.
There are three (3) components in asphaltophone contain an analogy in the phonograph, which
are composed of a record, a stylus and an amplification device. To play the instrument, with
particular speed the vehicle is driven across the road, and it will lead the surface topography of
the road causes the vehicle to vibrate at certain frequencies. The installation of asphaltophone
is an enjoyable and inexpensive method to help drivers keep alert, contribute to tourism sector
and also can encourage driver to control their speed of car on the road. The musical road was
founded by Steen Krarup Jensen and Jakob Freud-Magnus in 1995. After the first installation
in Denmark, many others musical road have been installed around the world. An equally sized
ridge or asphalt cut are used in installation of asphaltophone followed by gaps of various width.
Because of fabrication constraint, it is important to be noted that the ridge or asphalt cut must
in equally sized so that the music will have the right tone. To generate the predominant
frequency of the asphaltophone, the gap width plus the equally sized ridge and the desired
wavelength has to be in equal without consideration of the signal-to-noise of the produced note.
In Japan, musical road erupted by Shizua Shinoda whereas he has accidentally scraped some
markings into a road using a bulldozer and drove over them. He realized that it was possible to
create tunes depending on the depth and spacing of the grooves.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

The installation of asphaltophone on the road should be able to produce vibration that can
generate tune of any music based on the rhythm of the music that can be heard by the people
in the vehicle with certain speed. Unfortunately, without a proper design, asphaltophone could
turn out wrong frequency and fail to produce music. In this study, student will conduct a profile
design of musical road or also known as asphaltophone. Micro sleep while driving contribute
as number one (1) cause of road accidents that has sacrificed many lives all over the world.
Besides, over-limit speed also contributes to many cases of road accident even there are many
efforts by the authority such as warning signboard and spot speed traffic conducted in order to
control speed of drivers on the road. In this study, student will conduct a research to study on
how asphaltophone could overcome these problems.

1.3 OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to:

1. To study the designation of musical road using method of Thomas Edison’s to get right
tune on vibration.
2. To introduce musical road in Malaysia as replacement to the conventional rumble strip
and help driver to focus on driving and control speed.

1.4 SCOPE OF WORK AND LIMITATION

This study is to focus on designation of musical road by using method of Thomas Edison’s to
determine the depth and spacing of cutting groove. The failure to get the right depth and spacing
ruin the melody. Another aim to be focus is to introduce the musical road in Malaysia since in
this country has been use conventional rumble strip. The replacement of musical road will
contribute many benefits to users which are for safety and social. However, this study has the
limitation to collect primary data because there are no sample or installation in Malaysia yet.
The data only can be collected from previous study, journal, and article.

1.5 SIGNIFICANT STUDY

In Malaysia, rumble strip is applied along the road to alert drivers to slowdown ahead or
approaching danger spot. In this research student want to introduce asphaltophone to be
replaced with the previous rumble strip so that we have a better way to warn drivers plus make
it more interesting that could help drivers focus on driving. The musical road also a good
mechanism to act as skid resistance especially during wet weather. Most importantly to design
using right method so that any mistake that will ruin the music or tunes can be avoided when a
automobile across them.
 CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 INTRODUCTION

A vibration will be produced by the contact between the tyres and road to the air as wave and
will reaches the human’s ears and heard as sound element. However, the dull noise produced
from the long journeys has caused drivers to become tired and bored whereas it could cause to
drivers lost focus on journey and affect the safety of drivers. For that reason, it is important for
a civil engineer to study about function of sound produced by the friction between the tyre and
pavement to change from dull noise into a pleasing musical melody by according to certain
sequence and width of rubber strip. (Zhou et al., 2018).

2.2 TYPES OF MUSICAL ROAD AND THE PRODUCTION PRINCIPAL

2.2.1 Cutting groove-based musical roads.

The sound with melody is produced by the cutting groove as shown in Figure 1 according to
the different width implemented on the pavement, the music will be heard when the automobile
across them with recommended speed to generate continuous melody. According to Liu and
Xue (2011), there are two important elements to be pointed out from this installation which are
the width of groove will determine the pitch of sound and the other is the length section will
determine the sound duration. To generate a great melody of musical road, there are sequence
of step that need to consider. After the type of melody have been decided, the designer have to
compose the continuous tones according to the melody selected by using specific method to
determine the tones of ‘1,2,3….’. By designing the tones, a few attributes such as the frequency,
duration and speed of automobile can be determined. These two attributions which are
frequency and duration will take into account in production of groove-based musical road
whereas it will be separated into specific section that represent different tones (Zhou et al.,
2018).

Figure 1 Cutting groove-based musical roads: (a) elevation; (b) plan; (c) 3D view from(Zhou et al., 2018).
2.2.2 Raised Pavement Marker—Based Musical Road
This method is more detailed and specific whereas the tones of melody can be adjusted by
these attributes which are frequency, duration, strength, and timbre to produce the desire
melody. The melody of sound will be generated during the contact between the tyre and the
raised pavement marker as in Figure 2 with designation undulation structure. As Zhang (2013)
said, “multiple undulation structures with different attributes, deployed based on the musical
score, produce multiple sound with different attributes, and the combination produces a musical
melody”.

Figure 2 Raised pavement marker-based musical road: (a) elevation; (b) plan; (c) 3D view.

2.3 ASPHALTOPHONE PROFILE DESIGN

In determination of the frequency to produce the desire melody, method of Mathematica by the
concept of simple mass-spring-damper system, ( mx¨ + cẋ + kx = f(x) ) can be use design the
asphaltophone profile. The purpose of asphaltophone profile design is to determine the width
between the rubber strips to produce wavelength according to the tunes of desired melody. The
previous installation of rubber strip whereas the width between them is fixed will generate the
constant noise compared to the asphaltophone that have various width will generate kinds of
tones that is called musical road. The following is a simple mass-spring damper system:

mx¨ + cẋ + kx = f(x)

where are, m = 1.0, c = 0.1, k = 1.0 and f(x) = asphaltophone profile. (Perkins et al.,
2019)
 CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY
3.1 FRAMEWORK

SAMPLING
- Study the data and information related to musical road such as types of musical road,
the designation of musical road and the benefits to road users.

SELECTION OF STUDY AREA

- Select the location, it can be at dangerous spot or any suitable location.

- Road near to residence area is not suitable to avoid disturbance to residents.

DETERMINATION THE PROFILE DESIGN

- Using concept of Mathematica: mx¨ + cx_ + kx = f(x)

where m = 1:0, c = 0:1, and k = 1:0, and f(x) is the asphaltophone’s profile
- The frequency tones will be determined of ‘1,2,3,4….’
- The duration of the corresponding tone is calculated.

CONSTRUCTION OF MUSICAL ROAD

- The road segment is divided into continuous section that represent unsimilar tone.

- To cut the groove, machine equipped with cutting head is used. The cutting heads
multiple 12-inch diameter diamond tipped cutting blade.

- Set the desired depth and spacing between the cutting on the machines.

- Walk the machine on the pavement.

 CHAPTER 4

EXPECTED RESULT AND CONCLUSION

4.1 EXPECTED RESULT

The outcomes that are expecting from this study is by the application of musical road
at the dangerous spot can help to reduce numbers of traffic accidents because musical road can
act as warning or awaking mechanism to the road users. Apart from that, asphaltophone helps
to increase skid resistance, reduce break length, and raise hydroplaning speed, thereby reducing
the risk of rainy-weather accidents (Anupam,2011, Ong and Fwa, 2006) Another expected
result to bring out from this study is musical road helps automobile users to control their speed.
This is because it is design with certain limit speed or lower speed to drives over them to
generate a great tone. Moreover, musical road would be an effective attraction to tourism sector
due to its unique as in Figure 3 as a Musical Road in Japan.

Figure 3 Musical Road in Japan

4.2 CONCLUSION

All in all, The Musical Roas is a good mechanism that need to be implanted in Malaysia’s road
as the concept is easy to understand but yet can be really useful and contribute to many
advantages. There are various of asphaltophone invented in overseas, each of them has their
own speciality but the best to recommend is groove-type musical road. It is because by
adjusting the depth and spacing of cutting groove it can control the pitch and rhythm to generate
melody based on the tune designation. The closer spacing between cutting groove, the higher
pitch produced and vice versa. The Musical Road is a great idea to be installed in Malaysia.
 CHAPTER 5
TIMELINE / GANTT CHART

5.1 GANTT CHART

Main Week 1 to Week Week Week Week Week Week

Activities 2 3 to 4 4 to 5 6 to 7 8 to 9 10 to 12 13 to 14
and Stages
Selection of
Research
Title
Introduction

Literature
Review

Methodology

Expected
Result

Conclusion

Complete
REFERENCES

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TRANSPORT RTD PROGRAMME OF THE 4th FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME The Effects of Road
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ASPHALTOPHONE PROFILE DESIGN. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334707501

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