Comparison of impulse noise measurements and calculations by noise prediction methods: ISO 9613-2, NMPB-2008, Nord2000 and Harmonoise

Abstract

This master s thesis presents a comparison between impulse noise measurements and calculations from four well-known propagation models; ISO 9613-2, NMPB-2008, Harmonoise and Nord2000. The calculated values are compared to two independent measurements series where the propagation path distances varied between 20 m and 2 km. Meteorological conditions during the measurements were not measured in the immediate vicinity of the measurements, but collected from weather stations in the area. Measurements were carried out by Forsvarsbygg and details are not included in this report. The comparison between measurements and calculations is done by computing the error level, i.e. the difference between measurements and calculations. Overall the results did not show any clear pattern of dependency between the error level and the different models or cases of propagation. However, the average of the results showed that, in the absence of on-site meteorological information, NMPB-2008 on average predicts the sound levels better than the other models. This project report provides a foundation for further research and several improvements can be done in order to obtain more reliable results.