Parameter study of sound propagation between city canyons with a coupled FDTD-PE model

A parameter study is performed for the case of two-dimensional sound propagation from a (source) city canyon to a nearby, identical (receiver) city canyon. Focus was on sound pressure levels, relative to the free field, in the shielded canyon. An accurate and efficient coupled FDTD-PE model was applied, exploiting symmetry of the source and receiver canyon. With the proposed calculation method, simulations were necessary in only half the sound propagation domain. The shielding in the receiver canyon in case of a coherent line source was compared to the shielding by an incoherent line source, by means of sound propagation calculations in a number of 2D cross-sections through source and receiver. It was found that the shielding is rather insensitive to the width-height ratio of the canyons. The presence of diffusely reflecting facades and balconies lead to an important increase in shielding compared to flat facades. Rigid facades yield significantly lower shielding compared to partly reflecting facades. Effects of a moving atmosphere were modeled in detail. Shielding decreases significantly in case of downwind sound propagation when comparing to sound propagation in a non-moving atmosphere. Refraction is the most important effect in the latter. In case of upwind sound propagation, turbulent scattering plays an important role and the shielding is similar to the one of a non-moving atmosphere for the parameters used in this paper. The combination of effects, as is shown by some examples, is in general not a simple addition of the separate effects. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.