CITYHUSH - Acoustically green road vehicles and city areas
Overview
Background & policy context:
The project supported the European noise policy to eliminate harmful effects of noise exposure and decrease levels of transport noise creation. Especially in urban areas. CITYHUSH derived solutions that will ensure compliance with the constraints of legislative limits.
The project supported city administrations in the production and implementation of noise action plans according to the current directive (EC 2002/49).
Objectives:
The objective was to provide municipalities with tools to establish noise maps and action plans and to provide them with a broad range of validated technical solutions for the specific hot-spot problems they encounter in their specific city. The identified hot spots and noise acting plans made with the existing technology suffer from major shortcomings:
- poor correlation between hot spots with annoyance and complaints;
- most measures lead to increased emissions;
- only indoor noise comfort is addressed.
Methodology:
Step change solutions were proposed to reduce noise in the city environment. The project dealt with developing suitable problem identification and evaluation tools. And with designing and developing solutions for hot spots, which show high correlation with annoyance and complaints. The following innovative solutions and tools were developed:
- Concept of Q zones (zones where only quiet low emission vehicles are tolerated);
- Concept of parks embedded in Q zones;
- Improved noise score rating models (for indoors) by integrating low frequency noise and the occurrence of high noise single events;
- Noise score rating models (the outdoors);
- Objective and psychoacoustic evaluation tool for low noise low emission vehicles;
- Mathematical synthesis tool for noise from low noise low emission vehicles;
- General performance noise specifications for low noise low emission vehicles;
- Novel concepts for low noise roads based upon dense elastic road surfaces;
- Novel concepts for low noise roads based upon grinding of asphalt top layers;
- Novel concepts for tyres for low noise vehicles, including heavy vehicles;
- Criteria for use of low noise motorcycles;
- Active and passive noise attenuation measures within the tyre hood;
- Solutions for high low frequency absorption at facades of buildings;
- Solutions for high low frequency isolation in the propagation pad.
All the above solutions and tools were designed, prototyped and validated. They resulted in attaining the anticipated noise impacts.
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