Impulsivity of Noise due to Single Lightweight Vehicles Transit on Transverse Rumble Strip

Abstract

Transverse Rumble Strips (TRS) acts as safety device that alert inattentive drivers from potential dangers. However, the noise produced due to TRS was reported as noise annoyance among the nearby residents lived adjacent to roadways. Thus, this paper investigates the impulsivity characteristic of noise due to single lightweight vehicles transit on TRS. The objectives of this study are to determine the increase of sound level and to evaluate the impulsivity of noise. Two TRS profiles namely middle overlapped (MO) and middle layer overlapped (MLO) were selected. Three types of single lightweight vehicles which include hatchback, sedan and multipurpose (MPV) were tested at speed of 30, 50 and 70km/h. The sound level was measured using sound level meter (SLM). Noise indices such as LAeq, LAIeqT, LAImax, LAFmax and LASmax were obtained from the measurement. This study considered the differences of LAImax – LAFmax > 2dBA, LAFmax – LAeq ≥ 10dBA, LAIeqT – LAeq ≥ 2dBA and LAImax – LASmax > 6dBA to evaluate the impulsivity of noise. It was found that TRS increased the sound level by at most of 6dBA. Furthermore, all single lightweight vehicles transit on TRS show significant impulsive characteristic. These results proved that TRS produce significant impact to the nearby residents.

The effect of vehicle weight on the sound produced by transverse rumble strips

“…They related the increase with the tyre-TRS interaction for the higher sound increase at the speed of greater than 30 km/h, which was similar with the normal condition of tyre-road surface suggested by [30]. Furthermore, noise level changes on two types of thermoplastic TRSs with two different profiles of thermoplastic TRS with the same thickness of 3mm [19,20]. Three types of lightweight vehicle with Saga, Axia, and Alza [19] and four types of commercial vehicles with Hilux, a multipurpose van, a one tonne lorry, and a 40-seater school bus [20] were tested with various speed.…”

“…Previous works by authors in [19,20] investigated the effect of three types of lightweight vehicle, such as Saga, Axia, and Alza [19] and commercial vehicles like Hilux, multipurpose van, 1-tonne lorry, and 40-seater school bus [20] (Figure 2) on noise level and impulsivity of noise when they hit the two types of TRS, i.e MO and MLO. The test speed of 30 km/h, 50 km/h, and 70 km/h were for the lightweight vehicles, while 30 km/h and 50 km/h were for commercial vehicles.…”

“…Vehicle speed and type were the subject of interested investigation towards the generation of sound pressure level (SPL) when vehicle transit on TRS [11][12][13][14][15]. Most extensive reports on noise level changes due to TRS were from the milled or grooved TRS on road surface [11,13,16,17], whereas very little were from the thermoplastic TRS [18,14,19,20]. The reports had tested on the tactile and audible warning produced by different thermoplastic TRS configurations that were installed on a two-lane Thailand highway.…”

“…Furthermore, noise level changes on two types of thermoplastic TRSs with two different profiles of thermoplastic TRS with the same thickness of 3mm [19,20]. Three types of lightweight vehicle with Saga, Axia, and Alza [19] and four types of commercial vehicles with Hilux, a multipurpose van, a one tonne lorry, and a 40-seater school bus [20] were tested with various speed.…”

Assessment of traffic noise due to transverse rumble strips at residential areas

“…The average difference of noise level decrease when the average speed approaching the 70 km/h, the optimal speed which causes the minimum value of noise level [18]. Based on previous study, it is also stated that sound level changes for vehicles transit on MLO are higher than MO and RR [19]. Figure 18 shows that the relationship between the average difference of roadside noise level and skid resistance.…”