Effects of traffic composition on road noise: a case study

This work analyses the effects of traffic composition on the noise generated by typical Brazilian roads. Traffic composition is defined as the percentage of heavy vehicles with respect to the total number of vehicles. Measurements were made from Monday to Friday, 6:00 to 10:10 a.m. A total of 149 measurements were made on three roads. For each the percentile level L-10 and the equivalent level L-eq were measured. These levels were plotted against the composition of the traffic and empirical expressions were obtained with reasonably good correlation indexes. The results are compared to those of Crompton and Gilbert found for UK roads. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.