Parametric Influence on Prediction of Sound Absorption Coefficients for Asphalt Pavements

Abstract

A quantitative method for predicting the sound absorption coefficients of various porous highway pavement materials is developed in this research. Types of pavements and material properties of the pavements are considered. Existing models have been evaluated and extended to predict the absorption coefficients of porous materials as a function of their permeability, porosity, and pavement thickness. Experiments are performed on the samples taken from the field and the experimental results are compared with the predicted values of the present method. The effects of several control parameters on the determination of the absorption coefficients are also investigated.

Keywords: sound absorption coefficient, porous materials, pavement, traffic noise, permeability, porosity, tortuosity, sound absorption model