Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 13, No 1, 18 (2012)

Air pollution

NOISE POLLUTIOn EMITTED BY RAIL TrAnSpOrTATIOn SYSTEMS

G. E. MOCUTA, M. POpeSCU, C. A. ROSCA* Politehnica University of Timisoara, 1 Mihai Viteazul Blvd., 300 222 Timisoara, Romania E-mail: rosca_cipri@yahoo.com; mocuta_ge@yahoo.com; hela.popescu@yahoo.com
Abstract. It is known that the railway transport as compared with the road one is gentler with the environment considering gas emissions. But, when taking into account the emitted noise there are some issues. The paper analyses the effects of noises on the state of health of persons exposed and on not harmful accepted limits. Romania is in the harmonisation phase of its national legislation with that of the European Union. In this context the paper analyses legal regulations to reduce the transport noise in Romania and the European Union. Furtheron case studies are presented on the latest methods to reduce noise applied to the railway transport. Keywords: air pollution, rail transportation, noise.

AimS AND bACKgrOUND

PHYSICS AND PHYSIOLOGICAL ACOUSTICS

Sound is caused by a vibrating object that disturbs the air molecules through alternately compression and rarefaction of their molecules. The compression and rarefaction result in a pressure wave propagated from the vibrating object at a constant speed. Sound is characterised by amplitude and frequency. The speed of sound in air is not dependent on frequency. There are some sounds consisting of only one frequency, but in the environment a lot of sounds are present with different frequency components. The propagation speed expression of the sound in the air is as follows:

c=

RT M

(1)

where is the adiabatic exponent of the ideal gas; R = 8.3103 J kmol1 K1universal constant value of the gases, T the absolute temperature of the air (considering an ideal gas); M its molar mass.

For correspondence.

The speed of the sound depends on atmospheric pressure, humidity and temperature, too. It increases about 0.61 m/s for each 1C, so that at 20oC the propagation speed is about 300 m/s (Ref. 1). The way in which the sound power of a source spreads in the environment is described by the size called acoustic intensity or superficial density of the acoustic power. It represents the power passing through a natural imaginary surface element in the direction in which the sound waves propagate; this size is measured in W/m2. The threshold of audibility is when the acoustic intensity has the value I0 = 1012 W/m2. Most frequently the sound is characterised by a size called acoustic intensity level which is defined as the common logarithm of the ratio acoustic intensity and the intensity corresponding to the threshold of audibility. The measure unit for the acoustic intensity level is Bell symbolised by B. The name of this unit was given in the honour of Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. In order to avoid decimals the sound intensity level is usually expressed in tenths of Bell decibels (dB). So, the 1B acoustic intensity level of a sound which has the acoustic intensity I = 1011 is comparatively expressed with the acoustic intensity of the audibility threshold I0 by:
B = 10 dB = 10 lg 1011 I0 . (2)

Logically, it results that the acoustic intensity level of the audibility threshold is 0 dB. Production and propagation of elastic waves from a source and their reception in the form of sound is a continuous process, inseparably linked. All information received is taken, in real time, in the ear and here from in the human brain, so the feeling of sound appears. The sound perception organ, the ear (Fig. 1)2, is made up of 3 divisions: external ear with acoustic duct, which leads the sound waves to the tympanum membrane; middle ear, with the 3 bones of hearing that communicate with the throat by the Eustachio duct; inner ear, where the sound vibrations received from the environment as sound waves are converted in nervous impulses. The human ear can perceive sound waves when elastic waves fits within certain limits of frequency, intensity and duration. Thus elastic waves with their intensity can become from an objective phenomenon to a subjective phenomenon by ear sensitivity perception and feeling of sound frequency (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1. Structure of sound perception organ2

Fig. 2. Perception of the sound

Frequency limits are in the range 1620 000 Hz largely depending on the individual, and with the age these limits begin to decline. Intensity limits depend mainly on frequency and on the individual. For a given frequency there is a low intensity noise and upper limit when the sounds produce a painful and harmful sensation. The highest sensitivity of human ear is normal for 1000 Hz frequency sound3. For the normal sound the magnitude of acoustic pressure on the ear drum is p= 2.84105 N/m2. At the value of I0 = 1012 W/m2, the audibility threshold, there is a minimum of acoustic pressure that human ears receive in the form of sound p0 = pmin. = 1105 N/m2. Depending on the frequency from 1000 to 3000 Hz the audibility threshold is the minimum (maximum sensitivity) which is practically a constant value. The recent measurements have shown that the human ear sensitivity is around the maximum at 2500 Hz frequency for the common audibility threshold. Statistically can be shown that at 50 Hz the audibility threshold increases 5105 times and at 20 Hz the audibility threshold increases 108 times the maximum value. Also the human ear sensitivity decreases to 104 times the maximum value for 100 Hz and only 10 times for 400 Hz. It defines the superior threshold of audibility as the maximum pressure pmax. = 2102 N/m2 or Is max. = 102 W/m2 intensity noise corresponding to the normal sound at 1000 Hz frequency4. At higher pressure a man feels powerful and unpleasant sounds on the drum which turns into pain (pain threshold). 

The ratio of the intensity noise for the 2 thresholds, the above one and the below one, respectively is:
Is max. Is min. pmax. pmin. = Is max. I0 pmax. p0 = 102 W/m2 1012 W/m2 = 1014 (3)

or for pressure

2102 N/m2 2105 N/m2

= 107.

(4)

Auditory field intensity is very wide (Fig. 3). The curves which define the 2 audibility thresholds, the upper one and the lower one, depending on the frequency delimit their inside surface audibility field. The size of this area is an indicator of the hearing capacity for a person. The surface decreases to people having hearing defects.

Fig. 3 Audibility field2

A term limit of sound perception is rated at 0.06 s which means for a normal sound with 1000 Hz frequency there is persistent on a drum of 60 periods. Human ear can not perceive sound between the 2 differences of duration up of 0.01 s. The incident elastic waves have a shorter duration than 0.01 s when it is interpreted by the ear as a flap with undefined features. The sound particularly outdoor is in fact noise which varies in time. The measures of noise that account for these variations are based on an energy dose or equivalent energy level. Mathematically, this means to combine the sound energies of different sources or events5. Sometimes referred to as the energy average sound level over the period of interest, it is widely accepted as a valid measure of community noise. The equivalent sound level is equal to the equivalent steady noise level which in a stated time period would contain the same energy as time-varying noise during the same period of time.
1 t2 p 2 (t ) Leq = 10 lg d t 2 t t p 2 1 0 t 1
(5)

where p(t) is the time varying pressure; p0 = pmin. = 2105 N/m2 is the standard reference pressure. The average sound level over a period of time T is often symbolised as Leq(T). Commonly the term average indicates energy average and for different value it is known as: T = h (hourly averaged sound level), T = 8 h (8-hour averaged sound level), T = d (average daytime sound level) T = n (average night-time sound level), T=dn (day-night average sound). If adding a transient noise source such as rapid transit trains that create relatively high noise the average level exceeds 1% of the time. Following examples explain how important the equivalent sound level is. It is known that noises have negative effects on the health of people as they provoke a discomfort, increase general fatigue and especially the nervous fatigue. Also, it is aggravated in stress situations and implicitly is the reason of cardio-vascular and digestive illness, or an acoustic irreversible deficit. If the daily personal exposure to noise exceeds the acoustic intensity level of 80 dB or if the acoustic instantaneous pressure, non-moderated is greater than 112 N/m2, the employer must assure special measures regulated by the in force law, which is oriented to offer adequate information to the personnel by training on potential risks for the hearing due to the noise exposure. It is necessary to assure protection individual equipment against noise, etc. Noises considerably influence the whole body. Experimental research showed that noise under the form of impulses in the range 8085 and 90100 dB, has a greater negative influence on the cardio-vascular apparatus and on the nervous system, than the continuous noise of high and medium frequency, with the same acoustic intensity level. This phenomenon is explained by the derangement of the coordination mechanisms of the central nervous system. Moreover, the noise has other negative effects because increases the consumption of energy for the same intensity of physical effort if it develops in noisy environment and can appear disturbances of the diencefalo-hypophise/(disharmonia hypophise-ovarian) function, respiratory discomfort and thorax constriction feeling, painful tension at the eyes level and face, nausea, vomiting, acufene, weight loss, anaemia, arterial hypertension4 ischaemic cardiopathy, hyperglycemia, etc. It must be pointed out that the alcohol, marihuana, tranquillises and other drugs weaken the activity of the stapedius muscle to contract. This muscle in the medium ear, when is stimulated by noises, contracts itself and reduces the transmission of sounds to the internal ear functioning as a safety mechanism own by ear. If it is compromised by the drug or alcohol consumption it does not work any more as a functional automatism and so ear becomes vulnerable to damages provoked by noise. The exposure time to noise is also important. So, noises become dangerous if the continuous exposition is greater than 8 h at 80 dB. As the intensity of the 

noise increases, the dangerous exposition time decreases less than 8 h at 80 dB. For example, it becomes dangerous even after 2 h of exposure to noises of 100 dB. The danger can be immediate for the exposition at 120 dB, as it can instantaneously make damages to the ears. Any exposure duration to noise of 140 dB is dangerous and can provoke pains and especially bad damages of the ear. When the noise reaches 170 dB without protection for the ears, the hearing can be lost instantaneously. miTigATiON NOiSe Of TrAiNS iN mOTiON Trains are the source of noise that consists of a wide frequency spectrum with discrete frequency components. Most noise comprised not simply several tonal components, but very complex waveforms which have continuous frequency distributions. Such sounds are often called broad-band, if the frequency distribution covers wide range. When noise propagation outdoors is considered, there are additional complications of refraction caused by wind or thermal gradients and excess attenuation caused by rain, fog, snow, and atmospheric absorption6. Figure 4 shows atmospheric effects of noise propagation from trains.

Fig. 4. Atmospheric effects of noise propagation from trains7

Noise produced by any transit system must be characterised to determine the need for mitigation. The field of acoustics is replete with descriptors and methods for doing this, largely because of the many types of noise and the difficulty in as

sessing human responses to noise. So, for this reasons barrier walls are made to protect the urban area from the transport noise (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5. Reflection and transmission of acoustic energy by noise barrier walls

Reflection and transmission of acoustic energy by noise barrier walls are the most commonly misunderstood. A part of the noise incident to the wall is reflected and another part is transmitted across the wall. A part of intensity transmitted across the wall is absorbed into the wall by the ability of materials that are made to convert noise energy into heat. The absorption phenomenon is characterised by the sound absorption coefficient8:
=1 Ireflected Iincident . (6)

The sound absorption coefficient is always between 0 and 1, though published values of the coefficient may exceed 1 due to the measurement methods. The transmission coefficient8 is the ratio of transmitted sound intensity and the incident sound intensity, and is always between 0 and 1.
= Itransmitted Iincident . (7)

The technical literature publishes also another coefficient: the Sabine absorption coefficient that is very similar to the absorption coefficient, but it is determined for a patch of material placed on the floor of a reverberation chamber; the noise reduction coefficient that is a single number descriptor of the sound absorbing properties of various materials; the sound transmission loss in decibels that is a convenient descriptor of the sound isolation qualities of the wall materials3 and others.

CONClUSiONS Romania has implemented national legislation in connection with the European legislation in noise domain. There are legal requirements for noise protection on existing and new lines. Noise maps have been completed and development of action plans has been started in 2008. Railways are a sustainable mean of transport, however, noise issues must be addressed, if restrictions on rail freight traffic are to be avoided. RefereNCeS
1. D. J. FOrKeNbrOCK: External Costs of Intensity Truck Freight Transportation. Transportation Research, 33, 505 (1999). 2. E.-A. PAUNCU: Occupational Medicine, Theory and Practice. Ed. Orizonturi Universitare, Timisoara, 2008 (in Romanian). 3. H. A. NijlAND, S. HArTemiNK, i. van KAmp, B. van Wee: The Influence of Sensitivity for Road Traffic Noise on Residential Location. J. of the Acoustical Society of America, 122 (2), (2007). 4. R. L. ST. Pierre, Jr., J. D. MAgUire: The Impact of A-weighting Sound Pressure Level Measurements during the Evaluation of Noise Exposure. In: Noise-Con 04. The 2004 National Conference on Noise Control Engineering, Institute of Noise Control Engineering, Transportation Research Board, 2004. 5. V. C. ROSAO, M. F. NeTO: Influence of Traffic Noise Emission Spectra on the Design of Barriers. Noise Control Engineering J., 55 (3), (2007), 6. R. STefANelli, J. DUAl, E. CATAlDi-SpiNOlA: Acoustic Modeling of Railway Wheels and Acoustic Measurements to Determine Involved Eigenmodes in the Curve Squealing Phenomenon. In: 19th Symposium of the International Association for Vehicle System Dynamics, Vehicle System Dynamics, Vol. 44 Supplement. Taylor & Francis Ltd., 2006. 7. J. T. NelSON: Wheel/Rail Noise Control Manual. National Academy Press, Washington D.C., 1997. 8. D. GilleN: The Economics of Noise. Handbooks in Transport and the Environment, Elsevier Ltd., Vol. 4. 2003. Received 6 July 2009 Revised 15 February 2010