Impact Of Gaps On Situ Airborne Sound Insulation Of Noise Barriers

Noise barriers are a commonly used measure to shield residential neighbourhoods from the noise of heavily used roads. The assessment of these noise reduction measures is regulated by a number of standards, one of which is the European series of standards EN 1793 "Road traffic noise reducing devices -- Test method for determining the acoustic performance". Unfortunately, not all barriers are constructed with the necessary care and sometimes gaps between elements are left open. The aim of this study is to examine the sound transmission through these faults both numerically and experimentally. For the numerical treatment the boundary element method (BEM) that is especially suited for externally unconfined problems is used. The experimental part consists of measurements according to the standard EN 1793-6 [1] that are carried out at a noise barrier test facility. Finally the results obtained from the simulations and the measurements are compared.