Simulation of Sound Waves Using the Lattice Boltzmann Method for Fluid Flow: Benchmark Cases for Outdoor Sound Propagation.

Propagation of sound waves in air can be considered as a special case of fluid dynamics. Consequently, the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) for fluid flow can be used for simulating sound propagation. In this article application of the LBM to sound propagation is illustrated for various cases: free-field propagation, propagation over porous and non-porous ground, propagation over a noise barrier, and propagation in an atmosphere with wind.

Efficient numerical modeling of traffic noise.

An optimized method is presented for the numerical evaluation of the sound field generated by an incoherent line source, which is commonly used to model road and rail traffic noise. Two different solutions for the numerical integration over the line source are distinguished, a point source solution and a line source solution. With proper segmentation of the line source, both solutions yield accurate results.

Engineering modeling of traffic noise in shielded areas in cities.

A computational study of road traffic noise in cities is presented. Based on numerical boundary-element calculations of canyon-to-canyon propagation, an efficient engineering algorithm is developed to calculate the effect of multiple reflections in street canyons. The algorithm is supported by a room-acoustical analysis of the reverberant sound fields in the source and receiver canyons.