UNIVERSITY OF RIJEKA

FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

FLEXIBLE PAVEMENT STRUCTURES

QUIET PAVEMENTS

Student : Miran Flego, 0114013331

Rijeka, January 2015.

ABSTRACT
Noise is everywhere. It affects our lives at home, at work and generally everywhere.
Wherever people live there is noise.
Noise, by definition, is any unwanted or excessive sound. In the world today, noise
has become one of the most ubiquitous forms of environmental pollution.
In traffic, noise is a growing problem, especially within urban areas. Noise emission of
traffic vehicles is dominated with the noise produces by tires. That kind of noise is
influenced by the characteristics of the road surface, like acoustic absorption and
surface texture. The common noise reduction measures include noise barriers that
prevent sound propagation from the roadways to the urban areas. Those measures
are very expensive and ineffective in many urban areas.
Construction of quieter pavements is considered to be a promising engineering
technique for sustainable and environmental friendly roads.

SOUND LEVELS IN TRAFFIC

TRAFFIC NOISE MEASUREMENTS

SPB
method relies
onmeasure
normal traffic
stream
onused
a particular
road
Techniques
used to
the ove
mainly
for determining
or predicting overall
road
microphones
are
placed
usually
at
7.5
m
(European
standard)
from
the centre
line
side noise level rall traffic noise in the field are based upon two basic
methods:
perpendicular
to the direction
of travel
at 1.2 method
m height
pass
by measurement
method and
closeand
proximity
taken measurements for three classes of vehicles: passenger cars, dual-axle heavy
vehiclesused
withvariations
more thanoffour
wheels and
Generally
mentioned
passmultiple-axle
- by methodsheavy
are: vehicles
mainly
used for
determining
or predicting overall road side noise level
SPB
Statistical
Pass
By method
CPB Controlled Pass By method.
CPB
similar to the SPB method
measurement setup whereby a microphone or microphones are placed at specified
distance and height with respect to centre line
CPX
used fo comparing tires, vehicles and road surfaces
microphones mounted in close proximity to the tire, tire pavement interface or
vehicle engine

OBSI On Board Sound Intensity method

variation of CPX method
intensity of sound power created due to tire - pavement interaction
microphones are mounted next to a tire and therefore it is also called Close Proximity
Sound Intensity (CPSI)

QUIET PAVEMENT SOLUTIONS

Quieter asphalt pavements can be constructed with all common mixtures such as
Dense Graded Asphalt (DGA), Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA), Open Graded Asphalt (OGA)
and Porous Asphalt (PA) provided that the textures are small and negative.

Porous or drainage asphalt mixture

made of open-graded or uniformly graded aggregates that provide a high air void
contents (15% to 25%) in the compacted mix with which we can reduce the noise for
4 dB
promising performance in providing natural drainage and reduction in noise
maintenance represents a problem with clogging of voids
single or double - layer porous mixes and thin surfacing are used as noise - reducing
pavement mixes

SMA Split Mastics Asphalt

gap graded asphalt mixture with intermediate size aggregate missing

range of noise level is similar to dense graded asphalt pavements

OGA Open Graded Asphalt

designed for high skid resistance properties, is similar to porous pavement but with
lower void contents which are achieved through use of higher finer aggregates
provides noise reduction potential because part of the sound energy is absorbed
through the voids in the mixture

CRMA Crumb Rubber and Polymere Modified Asphalt Mixture

hydrocarbon binder obtained through physical and chemical interaction of crumb

rubber produced by recycling of used tires with bitumen and additives

composed of asphalt blended with 20% by weight rubber from recycled tires
tire rubber is finely ground at ambient temperatures then blended with asphalt at
temperatures exceeding 177C
very adhesive and cohesive high viscosity binder that gives high film thickness on
the aggregates

Quiet concrete pavement

high structural durability and stability under very high traffic

burlap and artificial turf drag textures have shown to be the quietest followed by the
diamond grounded surfaces
longitudinally tined surface has shown to be quieter than transversely

diamond grinding concept, known as whisper grinding produces low textured

surfaces and is shown to reduce the noise
shown to be the quietest and smoothest PCC reducing the CPX measured noise for 3
dB on newly grinded surface

COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT PAVEMENTS

noise level varies widely even within the same pavement group

NOISE INTENSITY TESTING IN EUROPE NITE PROJECT

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

developments of a consist tire pavement noise data base in California and Arizona,
caused considerable interest in applying this same measurement approach to
pavements in Europe in four countries in Europe - Germany, the Netherlands,
France, and Belgium
tests performed in California and Arizona showed following observations:
Pavement type can reduce tire - pavement noise up to 8 or 10 dB
significant range in tire - pavement noise performance is in each of the generic
groupings of pavement (PCC, DGAC, and OGAC/RAC)
surface texture controls the lower tire pavement noise frequencies (below ~1000
Hz
open-graded or rubberized asphalt concrete show the best tire pavement noise
performance
grinding of PCC surfaces can be effective in reducing tire pavement noise by
reducing texture effect and by reducing joint slap

) first 3 of these where also confirmed in the NITE testing

) NITE tests added:
1) highly porous 2-layer AC constructions can provide only slightly better tire pavement noise performance than the quiet pavements currently in use in California
and Arizona
2) porous PCC can produce tire pavement noise performance similar to other quiet
pavements
3) exposed aggregate PCC surfaces were not found to be particularly quiet relative to

ONGOING PROJECTS IN EUROPE

DEUFRAKO - SPERoN (Statistical Physical Explanation of Rolling Noise) model structuring of a surface with a moulding tool, perforated metal sheet structured with
a negative of the texture to be printed into a resin surface

PERSUADE - PoroElastic Road SUrface: an innovation to Avoid Damages to the

Environment - launched on 1 September 2009 and coordinated in Belgium, with the
budget of 3,4 million euros - based on rubber from scrap tires, which would benefit
the environment by contributing to reduceing traffic noise and vibration, but also
helping to solve the problem of more than 3 million tons of tires being dumped or
burned every year in the European Union

CONCLUSION

As the tire pavement interaction noise depends mainly on the surface

macrotexture, it provides the opportunity to play with the pavement surface mixes
and surface textures to reduce the noise.
Examples presented here also showed that techniques are available to reduce the
noise without sacrificing the safety and durability.
However, careful selection and construction is the key to achieve beneficial noise
reduction by the pavement itself.

REFERENCES:
Articles in a magazine
S. Lukui, V. Dragievi, T. Rukavina: Mjere smanjenja buke od prometa u urbanim sredinama, Graevinar 57, (1-9),
Zagreb, 2005.
M. Alauddin Ahammed Quiet Pavements: A Sustainable and Environmental Friendly Choice, Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada 2008.

Electronic sources web pages

http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2010947187_quietpavement01m.html?prmid=related_stories_section
(viewed on 15.12.2014.)
http://www.asphaltpavement.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=194&Itemid=328 (viewed on
15.12.2014.)
http://driveasphalt.org/noise (viewed on 15.12.2014.)
http://www.piarc.org/en/order-library/19683-en-Quiet%20pavement%20technologies.htm (viewed on 15.12.2014.)
http://international.fhwa.dot.gov/pubs/quiet_pav/pl05011.pdf (viewed on 15.12.2014.)
http://www.asphaltroads.org/why-asphalt/environment/quiet-pavement/ (viewed on 15.12.2014.)
http://azdot.gov/business/environmental-planning/programs/quiet-pavement-program (viewed on 15.12.2014.)

THANK YOU -