Roswell A. Harris

Seasonal Measurements of Aircraft Noise in a National Park

Jackson Hole Airport is the only air carrier airport located entirely in a National Park, that being Grand Teton. Concerns over noise impacts led to an Airport/Park agreement setting allowable levels, restricting flights and flight paths, and calling for compliance monitoring in the noise sensitive areas. This study documented seven days of continuous noise level measurements made at four sites in the Park during four consecutive seasons in 1985-86. Individual sound exposure level measurements at B-737/200 jets, Swearingen Metro turboprops, and general aviation aircraft permitted computation of “aircraft-only” day/night levels (DNL) at each site for each day. Measurement of half-hourly average sound levels permitted computation of “total” DNL for comparisons. Results showed general compliance with the DNL limits, except when winds necessitated northerly departures, in which case a single B- 737 could cause an exceedance. There were no statistically significant differences in mean aircraft DNL for each sit...

A review on barrier diffraction theories and related insertion loss comparisons in highway noise models

This paper presents a review on diffraction theories for highway noise barriers. Insertion loss based on different diffraction theories was investigated with two highway noise models, STAMINA and TNM 2.5. STAMINA implements the Kurze and Anderson empirical diffraction formula while TNM 2.5 deploys a simplified MacDonald analytical model. Quantitative analysis indicates that from the perspective of diffraction theory, the average difference of insertion loss between TNM and STAMINA for a point source is about 3 dB(A). To improve the prediction accuracy of TNM, it is recommended that the MacDonald solution, but with real and image sources, should be deployed.

HITEC EVALUATION OF U.S. GYPSUM SIGHT AND SOUND SCREEN

A program of laboratory and field-testing designed to evaluate the capabilities and limitations of the U.S. Gypsum Sight and Sound Screen (SSS) is described. The evaluation plan proposes a collaborative testing and evaluation effort to be conducted with volunteer state highway agencies, including a program of field demonstrations. This will occur after a new product evaluation protocol is completed and applied to the SSS system. The study is being conducted as part of Highway Innovative Technology Evaluation Center (HITEC) program of ASCEs Civil Engineering Research Foundation. This study highlights the HITEC evaluation process as it is applied to the SSS.