SoundPLAN Info #2

March 2012

Dear SoundPLAN users and future users,

SoundPLAN Info emails are a monthly/bi-monthly newsletter service we offer in 2012. Because not all
SoundPLAN capabilities are obvious, we will highlight certain modules and features, and provide detailed
explanations so you can become more proficient with SoundPLAN, create better investigation models and
reach your desired results more quickly.
This newsletter focuses on SoundPLAN's Industry, Indoor and Expert System Industry Noise Propagation
modules. If you like it, pass it around. If you don't, click UNSUSCRIBE.
Feedback is important! Please tell us if this is understandable or not, too detailed or not enough detail, and ask questions you
would like answered in future newsletters. To send is this information, click Feedback.
If you are not sure how to use one of the features described below, contact your local SoundPLAN hotline. Our support people
are ready to help you! (country links are found below to the right)
Your SoundPLAN team at SoundPLAN International LLC
Register to receive the SoundPLAN newsletter

Industry and Indoor Factory Noise Propagation

If you are not yet a SoundPLAN user and want to experiment with these modules, please download the free demo version from our server,
(download SoundPLAN). If you are a SoundPLAN user and want to trial a module, send your distributor an e-mail so we can supply a setup
file for one month.

SoundPLAN Special 2/2012

The Industry and Indoor Factory Noise Propagation modules discussed in this SoundPLAN info can be added to your license with a 20% price
reduction if ordered prior to March 31, 2012.

The above screen capture was taken from our WINCITY demo project. It depicts a petrol filling station with a built in car-wash as an example
of an industrial noise problem in a residential neighborhood. Sources are in the open area under a roof (modeled as a floating screen) and
inside the car wash. Noise from inside the building can be modeled or measured with the transmission through the outer walls defined as part
of the industrial building. You can start the modeling process any place in the process.
With SoundPLAN's new transparency of objects (tab 3D Graphics of the object setup), you can make any object transparent. In our example,

the walls of the shop and the car wash are transparent, as well as the roof of the petrol station.

From the hotline desk

SoundPLAN User Forum: Some time ago we started a

user forum for a restricted group of participants. We now
offer this to all SoundPLAN users. If you are interested in
participating, go to http://forum.soundplan.eu and register
your new account.

Google Earth: Most questions about SoundPLAN's

Google Earth interface concern which coordinate system to
use. If your project is part of a city or a motorway, the best
way to set up the coordinate system is to use the coordinate
system the surveyors, road administration and other
authorities used. When setting up a SoundPLAN project, the
Project Info box contains information about the coordinate
system. If you take the correct coordinate system, the bitmap
from Google Earth has the correct Geo-reference. As there
are hundreds of coordinate systems in the world, we cannot
research and explain all of the coordinate systems, but we
can explain the principles. The best explanation we have
found, especially about False Easting, False Northing and the
Stripe, is on the website of Killetsoft, the maker of the DLL
behind the SoundPLAN coordinate transformations and the
selection of the coordinate system. The article about the
UTM coordinate system is especially worth reviewing if you
have questions how the coordinate systems work. Go to:
http://www.killetsoft.de/t_them_e.htm.
Google Earth is a trademark of Google.

Capabilities of the 3D solid Model in

the Geo-Database
If you open the solid model in the Geo Database with Ctrl
F10, you can navigate in the model at will. Activate the
movement with the hand button and then select the action via
the right mouse button menu.
The pointed finger button activates the mode where you can
point to an object to activate its attribute definition dialog. As
can be seen in the picture to the left, the properties of the
point source are open for editing.

New Handbook

Download the latest English version SoundPLAN handbook

(January 2012)

Dates for trade shows, seminars, training....

Acoustics 2012 Hong Kong, Hong Kong, May 13-18

Training Hong Kong, May 21

EuroNoise 2012, Prague, Czech Republic, June 10-13
InterNoise 2012, New York, USA, August 19-22

New SoundPLAN Distributor

Marshall Day Ireland has joined the ranks of the worldwide

SoundPLAN distributor network. Visit Shanes website:
MDA Ireland

Previous SoundPLAN Info Issues

SoundPLAN Info #1 in PDF format

The main topic

Industrial Noise/ Indoors and

Outdoors
Source Types of Point, Line, Area
Sources and Industrial Buildings
For industrial noise calculations, SoundPLAN offers point,
line and area sources and an industrial building. Line and
area sources can have any location and orientation in space.
Area sources are triangulated for calculations, and each of the
triangles is calculated as a partial source. You cannot directly
influence the triangulation, so you must ensure each area
source forms a plain surface by itself, except when the source
is set to follow the ground, which can be requested by
activating a flag for it.
Sources can be mid frequency or octave bands or third octave
bands. The ranges can be between 25 Hz and 20 kHz. The
industrial building allows for the simulation inside as well as
the transmission through the outside walls.

Full Integration of Indoor Noise,

Transmission and Propagation
Industrial buildings have a roof and walls, and most of the
time extra weak areas on the facade such as windows and
doors. In our sample, there is also an opening where cars
drive out of the car wash. The noise level on the inside of the
building is the same for the "normal" walls and for the open
door, the difference is the transmission index. For normal
walls, the transmission index for concrete walls was chosen.
For the open door, a transmission index with 0.0 dB loss was
chosen.
The sound power radiated by the building is calculate for
each square meter of the facade. The formula for
is:
.
Lw=Li-6- Transmission
loss.
The noise level indoors can come
from a simulation, or, as in this case, from a measurement.
Depending on the scope of the study and the available data,
you can enter the "stream" at many different locations. If a
full simulation of the noise levels indoors is the basis of your
investigation, the program will generate receivers 1 meter
inside the outer walls and calculate the noise levels for it.
The noise levels are hosted in the emissions library.

Sources not active 24/7?

If sources are continuously active, then the measured sound
power does not have to be corrected. If the source is active
only part of the time, the noise levels need to be adjusted.
The sound power needs to be reduced
by
10*log(#of_seconds/3600).
SoundPLAN also allows the entry of the minutes per hour or
the number of noise events per hour. For noise events per
hour, the entered sound power must already be the value for
one cycle referenced for the entire hour.
The Time history is hosted in the SoundPLAN library. You
can create and select any time history. For each of the hours
of the day, the number of seconds can be entered that the
source is active. The program adjusts the sound power
internally.
In the documentation you can find a write-up of the time
history used and the adjustments that follow.

Directivity
SoundPLAN offers 2 different directivities, the 2D and the
3D directivity. The values are defined every 10 degrees
between 10 and 360 degrees. If the values are not entered
every 10 degrees, an interpolation allows the values to be
evaluated for the directions needed. With the "Norm" button,
the directivity values are assessed so the directivity does not
scale the sound power up or down.
The 2D directivity comes in 2 variants, the usual horizontal
directivity and the rotational symmetrical vertical directivity.
The vertical directivity only uses the values in the "eastern"
half of the diagram, i.e. the values between 270-0- 90.
This vertical directivity is used for smoke stacks and
openings that have a rotational symmetry. The rotation axis
is always vertical.
The direction 0 of the 2D horizontal directivity is the main
direction of the equipment. When digitizing the source, the
main direction needs to be set under the "additional" tab of
the source definition.
If the directivity is more complex (the source is not only
directive in the horizontal plane such as when using loud
speakers), a full 3D directivity is available where the
directivity is entered for 18 lines of latitude and for 36 values
representing the entire "globe" in steps of 10 degrees.
Not all equipment has the same directivity for all
frequencies, so the directivity definition in the source has a
checkbox to allow the directivity to be frequency dependant.

Different directivity patterns can be assigned to a single

frequency or groups of frequencies.

Sources on Roofs
Loud sources such as air conditioning and vents are often on
roofs of other structures. This can be accurately modeled in
SoundPLAN. Some understanding of the problems the
standards impose on such calculations help with interpreting
the results.
The ISO 9613 defines the ground effect with 3 different
zones, the source zone, the middle zone and the receiver
zone. If the source and receiver zones are big enough, the
middle zone does not exist. The standard requires both the
source zone and the receiver zone have the length of 30 x the
height of source/receiver above the reflection plane. This is
the extent of the explanation in the the standard.
If the source is on a plane surface in front of the building, it
is clear what the source zone is, it is 30 times the height of
the source above the ground. But what is happening when the

source is on a roof like in the picture to the left? Where is the

reflection plane? Is the reflection plane on the roof itself or
on surface where the main building stands?
So far, the reflection plane in the ISO 9613 is calculated as
the difference between the source position and the ground at
the source as taken from the DGM. In other standards, such
as the Scandinavian General Prediction Model for Industrial
Plants, the reflection plane is evaluated by assuming different
reflection planes (the ground and the roof of the building)
and finding which one has the best fit.

Complex Geometry
What can be done? Why does it increas the calculation time
so much?
Floating Screens are the construction elements that allow the
user to model complex structures. In the picture to the left,
the floating screen was simply a roof attached to the building.
In past SoundPLAN versions, floating screens had to be
evaluated one by one, it was not possible to construct more
complex shapes from multiple floating screens. With
SoundPLAN 7.0 and newer versions, it is possible to have
multiple floating screens connect to each other and still
calculate the noise levels correctly.
The lower picture contains 3 buildings and 4 different
floating screens. Unfortunately, the price to pay for the
higher computational versatility is a higher calculation time.
The lowest picture depicts the capabilities of the new
calculation core. The shortest distance between source and
receiver is found and screening with restrictions on top and
bottom will be applied. As the program only evaluates the
shortest path (usually over the obstacle) and 2 paths for side
diffraction, the results are only approximations.

Screening not only over the Object,

but also around compound Objects
Screening for industry noise (mostly relevant for point
sources) occurs not only over the obstacles, but also around
them. If multiple objects create a compound path,
SoundPLAN will find the path even if the objects are not of
the same type. If a wall is attached to a building, the path
around the objects is found.

Maximum Noise Levels for Industry

For train noise, the maximum noise level describes what
could be measured with the setting peak hold on a sound
level meter. With industry noise, this is not possible. It is
impossible to define which of the non-stationary sources are
active simultaneously. Therefore the maximum noise level
for industry noise only delivers answers for individual
sources. Because the sound power usually fluctuates, you can
enter a separate value for the Lmax that is usually higher than
the Leq value. In the picture to the left, the source strictly
follows the definition from the library ("use library
definition").
"Total sound power located in one point" allows the program
to locate the place on the line/area causing the highest
maximum noise level (worst case scenario). This is important
for a moving point source, for example, where one wants to
find the position of the point source resulting in the highest
noise level (this is usually the position closest to the receiver)

Sound Pressure - Sound Power

The SoundPLAN library contains settings to reference the
Lw per unit/meter/level. The GeoDatabase only has the
selection of unit/meter. Why?
The entry for "level" is reserved to set the noise levels inside
an industrial building to a defined noise level or to define a
regular source with the sound pressure level and later on
convert it to the sound power level. For the industrial
building, the transmission and a formula for the conversion

will define the sound power for the outside shell of the
building. Sound power per meter is only sensible for line and
area sources where a meter/square meter of the source
radiates the defined sound power. If the definition is per unit,
the entire source shares the sound power. An example of this
is would be a fork lifter that has a defined sound power but
will travel on the line source so the sound power per meter of
the line is reduced 10log(length of source line).
SoundPLAN always uses the sound power to define a source,
so when you have only sound pressure measurement data,
you need to convert the sound pressure measurement into
sound power. There are build-in facilities for this in
SoundPLAN. If the reference in the Library is set to "Level",
you can right click on the data and select "Convert sound
pressure to sound power".
The program offers 4 different standard models to convert
the sound pressure into sound power (spherical, half
spherical, box and half box). To the left you can see the entry
for the full sphere. The entry is fully guided.

Mean Frequency
When a single value is entered for the source as sound
power, it can be assumed that the source still has a frequency
spectrum but the exact spectrum could not be measured or
was not available. Therefore it would be unrealistic to
calculate the ground effect for this very frequency. For the
ISO 9613, SoundPLAN calculates the ground effect with the
alternative formula that is not frequency dependent. In case
you really have a single frequency and want to have the
ground calculated for this very frequency, you must define a
spectrum in the emissions library that reflects your selection
of frequencies.

Frequency Filters
Spectra in the Library can be entered as a linear spectrum or
in any of the weightings. If you change from dB(A) to
dB(linear) for example, the program asks if you want to
recalculate the weighting or just change the label. This
protects your data in case you had forgotten to enter the
correct weighting before you entered the data. If your data
were measured as dB(A) and you wanted to change it to
linear, answer with "Yes". If the data was a linear spectrum
but while you entered the data the weighting was set to
dB(A), you need to answer "No" so only the label is changed.
For the calculations, it is irrelevant which frequency
weighting was selected. In the spectral result Documentation
you can switch between the different weightings after the
propagation calculation.

Impulse, Tonality Addition

Psychoacoustics tells us that steady noise levels are less
annoying than impulse type noise levels and broad
distribution of frequencies is less annoying than noise with a
strong tonal component. Normally these factors should be
evaluated at the receiver, not at the source. However, with
noise modeling we lack the resolution to make this decision
at the receiver, so it needs to be done with a definition at the
source.

Correction Factors for the Location

of the Source (k_omega)
If a source is in the free field high above the ground (i.e. a
chimney), no spatial corrections apply. If the source is
located in a position where it transmits only into half the
sphere, an addition of 3 dB needs to be applied. If the source
is in the corner restricted by 2 walls, the free sector is
increased by 6 dB.
In SoundPLAN, the spatial corrections are split between the
correction for the floor and for the walls. There is a simple
reason for this. Most standards explicitly calculate the
K_Floor as part of the ground effect. For these standards (i.e.
ISO 9613) the K_Floor is ignored. The value is calculated
explicitly instead of simply being stated.

Standards for Industry Noise

SoundPLAN offers many standards. If you are interested in a
standard for your noise propagation of industrial sources that
is not listed to the left, please let us know. We may be able to
help with the implementation.
If you click on the double arrow next to the standard label in
the SoundPLAN settings or the Calculation, you open the
pre-settings for the standard. Most standards allow you to
explicitly set the maximum values for single and multiple
diffractions. The default settings are defined in the standard
itself. With the ISO 9613 you can see there are selections for
equations of the interaction of screening and ground effect.
Extra tabs are available for the dissection (next discussion

slot), the temperature and humidity under environment, the

air absorption method and ground definitions under standard
and the meteorological corrections under Cmet.

Dissection of Sources
Line and area sources cannot always be represented
accurately by a single point source. At first it appears that the
finer the web of point sources the higher the accuracy. The
problem with this is that the calculation time would become
unsustainable. It also must be stated that a fixed break down
of line and area sources into point sources that satisfies the
near field is much too detailed for the far field. Therefore
some rules are made to achieve high accuracy while maintain
a good level of performance.
Distance to diameter factor is the prime rule to split line
and area sources into point sources. If the distance between
the receiver and a potential point source multiplied by the
factor is greater than the distance within the source, then the
source must be sub-.divided. Typically the factor is 4 to 10.
Max. Difference Gnd+Scr[dB] refers to a maximum tension
within the source. For all corners of the source and the

representing point source, the screening and the ground effect

is evaluated. If the difference in these factors is bigger than
the value entered, the source must be sub-divided. This is an
iterative process and can be carried out to the number defined
in Max. No of Iterations.
Too high numbers will result in excessive calculation time!
Minimal Distance [m] refers to the minimum distance
between a receiver and a source. If the distance would be 0.0,
the result would be infinity! It also would not be practical
because the receiver would be inside the source. If a Grid
Noise Map is calculated with 25 meter grid spacing the
minimal distance can easily be 5 meters.

Tolerance
If a Grid Noise Map is calculated, speed is paramount. If
single receivers are calculated, maximum accuracy counts. In
SoundPLAN you can guide the program to create the correct
balance between speed and accuracy. The selector for
tolerance is the place for this determination. For a Grid Noise
Map, a tolerance of 0.5 dB will greatly speed up the
application. For single receivers in industry noise, 0.001 will
achieve the highest accuracy, especially if you set the
tolerance for each source contribution.
The SoundPLAN 7.0 calculation core changed from an angle
by angle approach to a procedure where the calculation is
source by source. The sources are ranked by their free field
contribution. All sources with big contributions are
calculated right away, all minor contributions are grouped in
a list to be estimated ("estimate list"). If all sources in the
"estimate list" would not increase the overall noise level by
more than the value of the tolerance, all sources in the
"estimate list" will be estimated with correct spreading but
average ground effect, screening, air absorption etc. If the
tolerance is exceeded, the next sources with the highest
contribution levels in the "estimate list" are calculated and
the test of the tolerance conditions is done again. Under the
topic, "dissection of sources", you find reasons why some
sources are calculated piece by piece. If this is the case, the
tolerance can be set to apply to these partial sources.
Be aware that setting the tolerance very restrictive and only
for "each source contribution level" will drastically increase
the calculation time!

Problems with CONCAWE

The CONCAWE standard has one advantage in that it is one
of the few standards that allows wind and stability to be used
in the calculation. The picture to the left shows the same
scenario, one time calculated with wind from 70 and one
time with the wind from 230.
The CONCAWE standard has three big shortcomings. One is
that the formulae for the ground effect and the
meteorological correction are only valid from distances of
greater than 100 meters. What if the source is closer to the
receiver? In this case, SoundPLAN takes the value for the
100 meter calculation and extrapolates the effect between the
100 meter mark and 0.0 dB. This is certainly not correct, but
what is? It is not defined in the standard.
Another shortcoming is that the standard does not have any
formula for screening, it just states to use the approach from
Maekawa....
The third shortcoming is the missing definition concerning
how to modify the ground effect when significant screening
is present.

Optimizing Noise Control

What Wall Design is for transportation noise, Expert System
for Industry Noise is for frequency dependent time variant
industrial noise applications. This module shows the user
ways to minimize the noise impact for the lowest possible
cost.
A pre-calculation for single noise sensitive receivers is
needed to lay the ground work for the optimization. When
opening a finished single point calculation, Expert System
shows many aspects of the project in one screen. The top part
is always the same, listing receivers to the left and sources to
the right. Both lists are sorted according to the noise ranking.
The receiver list shows the highest infringement on top. The
list of sources is sorted in accordance to the highest
contribution to the receiver highlighted in the receiver list.
Additional windows allow you to show graphics of the
situation, to view details of the source contributions,
emission spectra, etc. A cumulative contribution diagram
sorts the source contribution graphically so you can see
which of the sources are worth quieting down.
The user can define noise mitigating measures for each of the
sources. The attenuation spectra for silencers and other
equipment can be defined with a difference spectrum in dB
and a price. After all noise control equipment is defined, with
just a click of the mouse, SoundPLAN iterates all noise
control options for all sources and all receivers, and finds and
ranks the noise control measures needed to bring the noise

levels for all receivers below the noise target.

The selected noise control measures can be saved as a file
and can be added to calculations of Grid Noise Maps, Facade
Noise Maps, Meshed Map or Single Point Sound maps. This
makes it very easy to create multiple scenarios of noise
control, to depict the effects in map format, and to calculate a
difference map between the "do nothing" scenario and proper
noise control scenarios.

Calculation Method for Indoors

The calculation of interior noise levels in working rooms is
based on the VDI 3760. With the unique extensions
implemented in SoundPLAN, we have overcome the
restrictions of this guideline. Now it is possible to take into
account any room shape, local screening effects, and local
absorption areas. You know have the ability to optimize
sensible noise reduction measures like absorbers and screens
in rooms with work places.
The complete integration of this module in the SoundPLAN
program package takes advantage of the existing and easy to
use input and output capabilities. This gives you the
possibility to create and compare different variants in the
most convenient way. The acoustical input data (emission
and absorption) can be organized in the well-structured
libraries already containing hundreds of elements in octave
or even in third octave bands.

The basic equations defined in the VDI 3760 are describing the direct sound:

and the scattered sound:

The computed results can be single values at working places,

sound decay curves (Sound Propagation Curve),
reverberation times (based on Sabine / Ering) and horizontal
and vertical noise maps.
All calculations are carried out with the fast and most
advanced SoundPLAN calculation core using the full power
of your computer with the multi-threading technique.The
integrated concept of the interior noise calculations and the
superb definition of the surrounding building facades give
you the ability to use the calculated indoor levels directly for
your environmental noise assessment study in the

The overall energy is the sum of the direct and the scattered sound from the
original source and all mirror sources.

surrounding of your industrial site. There is no other software

offering this complete linkage and ease of use - saving your
time and money.
The equations on the left use the abbreviations:
P = acoustic power of the source
q = scattering object density
c = speed of sound
r = distance between source & receiver
m = air absorption coefficient
= reflection coefficient (covers the absorption of the reflecting
boundary plane)

The basic equations of the VDI 3760 foresaw a model of the

factory building that resembles a shoe carton, all walls
perpendicular to one another with floor and ceiling parallel to
each other. SoundPLAN extended the concept by allowing
any floor plan, but kept the restriction of floor and ceiling
being parallel. Further extensions to the concept allow
partitions in the room and full and half height walls. The
concept of the transmission from one room section to another
can be seen to the left. For the direct transmission, the
screening is evaluated with the screening function. For the
scattered part, the ratio of open to blocked space is relevant.
The validation:
The presented calculation method was tested in two ways:
comparison with available test series
comparison with other calculation methods

The diagram to the left shows the red dotted line in a sample
industrial building as the SoundPLAN 7.0 simulation. The
black series is the measurement series.

Indoor Factory Demo Model

This is a factory where some quiet areas are needed.

This grafic shows the factory after the insertion of walls and

local absorption material on the ceiling.

This is a noise map after the modifications were completed.

This is a difference map showing the before and the after

scenarios.

This is an Indoor Factory Model with

half height walls and Cross-sectional
Noise Maps

Documentation. What is this about?

The Documentation in the Result Tables contains a host of
information about the spectrum at the receiver for all time
slots, the distribution of noise over the course of the day, the
individual contribution of each partial source, the 24 hour
breakdown of the source contribution and diagrams for
spectral and time history information. This information is
available for every receiver.
The documentation has provisions to format the tables into a
nice report with headers, footers and many pre-defined text
components.

Copyright 2012 SoundPLAN international LLC, Shelton, WA 98584, USA