Comparative Study of Sound Absorption Coefficients on Different Types of Road Surfaces Using Non-Destructive Method as per ISO 13472-2:2010

Road Traffic Noise is causing huge socio-economic loss to the nations all around the world. In a study it is estimated that in Europe itself the traffic noise accounted for at least €38 billion per year (0.4% of total GDP of EU22). It is almost as high as one-third of socio-economic cost associated with traffic accidents. Tire Pavement noise is major component of traffic noise which is combined result of interaction of Tire and pavement. Sound Absorption Coefficient being an important property of the Road/Pavement plays an important role in the amount of noise generated from the Tire-Pavement Interaction. This paper discusses the test method and result obtained for sound absorption coefficient measurement as per newly developed non-destructive ISO 13472-2:2010 standard on three different road surfaces. It has been found that sound absorption coefficient values for all the road surfaces are within the limits (0.1) as specified under UNECE R117 regulation. The average sound absorption coefficient for the asphaltic road surface was found to be 0.014, which was 39.13% lower than the sound absorption coefficient obtained on the concrete road surface.