Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869

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Applied Acoustics
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust

New vehicle noise emission for French traffic noise prediction

Jean-Françcois Hamet a, Francis Besnard b,1, Sonia Doisy c, Joël Lelong a,*, Emmanuel le Duc d
a
INRETS, 25, Avenue Françcois Mitterrand, Case 24, F 69675 Bron cedex, France
b
LREP, BP 134, 93352 Le Bourget, France
c
LRPC, 11 Rue Jean Mentelin, BP 9, F 67035 Strasbourg cedex 3, France
d
SETRA, 46 Avenue Aristide Briand, BP 100, F 92225 Bagneux cedex, France

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Traffic noise prediction models in France are based on vehicle noise emission values defined by the
Received 2 September 2008 French Guide du Bruit des Transports Terrestres (Noise Guide for Ground Transport – Noise levels predic-
Received in revised form 9 April 2010 tion). These emission values are suited for models addressing the noise assessments of road infrastruc-
Accepted 11 May 2010
tures and the dimensioning of acoustic protections, needing traffic noise estimations in terms of ŁAeq
Available online 19 June 2010
over a long period of time (an hour or more).
The values, obtained from measurements collected in the 70s, are updated in the publication of a new
Keywords:
guide (Methodological Guide, Vehicle noise emissions, to be published), which addresses the road surface
Traffic noise
Prediction
influence on tyre/road noise. The emission values are now expressed through the contributions of a
Vehicle noise emission power unit component, function of traffic speed, traffic flow type and road declivity, and of a rolling noise
Power unit noise component, function of traffic speed and road pavement.
Rolling noise The paper outlines the procedures followed to determine the components, gives their numerical values,
and illustrates some vehicle noise emissions.
Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction 2. Traffic noise and vehicle noise emission

Traffic noise prediction models in France are based on vehicle The vehicles are characterized by their acoustic power W and
noise emission values defined by the French Guide du Bruit des modeled by omni-directional point sources. The mean value, over
Transports Terrestres (Noise Guide for Ground Transport – Noise the time interval [t, t + T], of the quadratic pressure created, at an
levels prediction, GdB80 [1]). These emission values are suited observation point, by a traffic flow of N vehicles is written
for models addressing the noise assessments of road infrastruc-
Z tþT XN
tures and the dimensioning of acoustic protections, needing traffic qo c o 1 W k ð sÞ
noise estimations in terms of ŁAeq over a long period of time (an
p2T ¼ ds ð1Þ
2p T t k¼1
r 2k ðsÞ
hour or more).
The GdB80 values, obtained from measurements collected in where rk(t) is the distance of vehicle k to the observation point, and
the 70s, had to be updated in order to take into account develop- qoco is the air impedance. The GdBN08 calculation method basically
ments in vehicle and in road technologies. A working programm, consists in subdividing each traffic lane in straight segments, in cal-
lead by SETRA,2 was established for this purpose. This program, culating the contribution of each segment at the observation points
launched in the late 90s, will soon be concluded by the publication and in summing the contributions.
of a new guide (GdBN08 [2]). Given the straight segment [x1, x2] (Fig. 1), vehicle k will travel it
The new guide addresses the pavement influence on tyre/road in time interval [t1,k, t2,k]. The segment contribution to the qua-
noise. The new noise emissions are expressed through the contri- dratic pressure may be written
butions of two independent terms: a power unit noise component
and a rolling noise component. Z
qo co 1 X
N t 2;k
W k ð sÞ
p2T;DL ¼ ds ð2Þ
2p T k¼1 t1;k
2
d þ ½xk ðsÞ  xm 2

where xk(t) is the position of vehicle k on the segment.

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: joel.lelong@inrets.fr (J. Lelong).
The GdBN08 considers acoustically ‘‘homogenous” segments,
1
Previously at SETRA, France. i.e. segments where the vehicle speed vk, and consequently the
2
Service Technique des Routes et Autoroutes. acoustic power Wk, can be considered constant. Making the trans-

0003-682X/$ - see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2010.05.003
862 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869

gories according to the traffic composition (Eq. (4)), and by calculat-

ing the resulting noise at the observation point (Eq. (3)).

2.1. The power unit and rolling noise components

The construction of the GdBN08 emission laws are based on the

observation that a vehicle noise emission can be broken down into
the contribution of two independent terms: a rolling noise compo-
nent related to the tyre/road noise, and a power unit noise compo-
nent related to the mechanical sources (see infra [5]). The noise
power Wi of each vehicle category have thus been broken up into
Fig. 1. Geometry.
a rolling component Wr,i function of speed and pavement surface,
formation xk = vk  t the expression for the quadratic pressure and a power unit component Wp,i function of traffic flow (speed,
becomes acceleration) and road declivity:
Z
qo co 1 X
N
Wk x2
dxk W i ¼ W p;i þ W r;i ; W p;i ¼ W p;i;k ; W r;i ¼ W r;i;k ð9Þ
p2T;DL ¼
2p T k¼1 v k x1
2
d þ ðxk  xm Þ2 Apart from a few exceptions, the components have been deter-
1 Dh L 1 X
N
Wk mined using experimental results. As much as possible, the noise
¼ qo co ð3Þ measurements were made in traffic conditions (SPB procedure NF
d 2p T k¼1 v k
S31 119-1 [3], similar to ISO 11819-1) and on different sites in order
P
W k =v k has the dimension of a noise energy per unit length. It de- to address the pavement surfaces, the traffic conditions, and the
pends on the traffic speed distribution, {vk}, and the vehicles’ noise vehicle fleet. For some situations, measurements were made on
power laws, {Wk(v)}. Its average may not converge to a unique value tracks, in controlled conditions (CPB procedure NF S 31 119-2
for large N, due to the non unimodal distribution of the vehicle [4]). Measurement results are pass-by maximum levels in dB(A),
noise powers.3 Vehicles are thus split into categories such that an LAmax, measured at 7.5 m horizontal distance from the traffic path
average noise energy per unit length Ei may be defined for each one: and 1.2 m height above the ground surface. The SPB procedure
measures the vehicles of the traffic flow (100 vehicles minimum
X ni
X Ni
N
Wk 1 X W i;k ðv i;k Þ X for the LVs, 80 vehicles minimum for the HVs). For CPB measure-
¼ N i Ei ; Ei ¼ ; Ni ¼ N ð4Þ
k¼1
vk i¼1
Ni k¼1 v i;k i
ments, test vehicles are used and for each vehicle, several pass-by
are performed (the amount depends on the objectives).
Within each category, the modeling assumes a unique vehicle noise The noise power level LW of a vehicle (linkened to an omni-
power law Wi(v), equal to the average of the individual power laws, directional source) is obtained from its measured LAmax by the
and a common equivalent speed veq,i: expression
Ni Ni
1 X 1 X W i ðv i;k Þ d
W i ðv Þ ¼ W i;k ðv Þ; Ei ðv eq;i Þ ¼ LW ðv Þ ¼LAmax ðv Þ þ 20 log þ 10 log 2pdB
Ni k¼1 Ni k¼1 v i;k do
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
W i ðv eq;i Þ d
¼ ð5Þ where ¼ 7:52 þ 1:22 ð10Þ
v eq;i do

As will be seen, the vehicles noise power laws vary like4 The noise emission values presented in the following chapters cor-
W i ðv Þ ¼ C i v bi . The equivalent speed veq,i corresponding to the set respond to LAmax levels in dB(A), more familiar than vehicle noise
{vi,k} of category i is thus formally power levels LW or traffic lane noise power per unit length. The
braking down of LAmax into a power unit component Lp, and a rolling
" #1=ðbi 1Þ
1 X
Ni noise component Lr, is written
v eq;i ¼ v ðbi 1Þ ð6Þ h i
Ni k¼1 i;k
LAmax ¼ Lp  Lr ¼ 10 log 100:1Lp þ 100:1Lr ð11Þ
For calculation simplicity, the GdBN08 method uses the arithmetic
P The LV and HV subscript (in Lp,LV or in Lr,HV for instance) will be used
average v m;i ¼ k v i;k =N i instead of veq,i. The resulting estimation er-
ror on Ei is in decibels: when dealing with the vehicle categories.

DLEi ¼ 10  ðbi  1Þ  logðv m;i =v eq;i Þ ð7Þ

For normal vehicle speed distributions, commonly observed, the er-
ror is negligible.
The GdBN08 splits the vehicles into two categories : light vehi-
cles (LV, below 3.5 t) and heavy vehicles (HV, 3.5 t and above), and
provides for each one a noise power per unit length for a one vehi-
cle per hour flow rate:
PT;i ðv Þ ¼ Ei ðv Þ=T ¼ W i ðv Þ=v T; T ¼ 3600 s
The noise created by the trafficked section lane is thus obtained by
taking the noise power per unit length of each vehicle category, at
their appropriate speed, by summing the contributions of the cate-
3
A traffic with 40% heavy vehicles and a traffic with 10% heavy vehicles, all things
being equal, do not make the same noise.
4
At least locally.
3. The rolling noise component
The rolling noise component depends on vehicle speed and on
the road surface. Its determination is based on pass-by measure-
ments over a large sample of surfaces and addresses the different
types and years of age.
A database managed by the LRPC of Strasbourg contains pass-by
measurement results of some 450 sites for the LVs and 150 sites for
ð8Þ
the HVs (with 4 axles or more). The measurements were per-
formed according to the SPB or the CPB procedure for the LVs,
and to the SPB procedure for the HVs. Each site is characterized
by its LAmax(v) speed law, obtained by regression over the data: LA-
max(v) = LAmax(vref) + b log v/vref, vref = 90 km/h for LVs and 80 km/h
for HVs. Results are given for an air temperature of 20 °C by apply-
ing a correction dLAmax = +0.1  (h  20 °C) dB(A), where h is the air
temperature during the measurements [4].
 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869 863

Light Vehicles: L @ 90 km/h / 20°C [CBP & SPB] Large Goods Vehicles: L @ 80 km/h / 20°C [SPB]
Amax Amax

95
85 R1 R2 R3 R1 R2 R3

90
80
dB(A)

dB(A)
85
75

80
70

75
BBTM 0/10−T2

BBTM 0/10−T2
BBTM 0/6−T2

BBTM 0/6−T2
BBUM 0/10

BBUM 0/10
BBTM 0/10
BBSG 0/10

BBSG 0/14

BBTM 0/14

BBTM 0/10
BBSG 0/10

BBSG 0/14

BBTM 0/14
BBDr 0/10

BBDr 0/14

BBDr 0/10
BBUM 0/6
BBTM 0/6

BBTM 0/6
BBM 0/10

ES 10/14

ES 10/14
BBDr 0/6

BBDr 0/6
ES 6/10

ES 6/10
ES 4/6
ECF

ECF
BC

BC
Fig. 2. Left: LV’s SPB and CPB levels at 90 km/h, 20 °C. Right: HV’s SPB levels at 80 km/h, 20 °C. Each ‘+’ symbol corresponds to the LAmax(vref) at 20 °C of one road surface. The
lengths of service of the road surfaces range from a few months to 18 years.

The LAmax(vref) of the database are presented in Fig. 2, graph to Table 1

Rolling noise component of the three road surface categories dB(A) values and 95%
the left for the LVs,5 and graph to the right for the HVs. They are or-
confidence interval.
ganized in road surfaces types.6 The majority of the surfaces were
less than 3 years old when measured, some had reached a length Lr;Ri ;LV ðv Þ I95% Lr;Ri ;HV ðv Þ I95%
of service of 18 years. R1 73.3 + 31.0 log v/90 3.4 82.5 + 30 log v/80 3.1
R2 77.3 + 30.1 log v/90 2.5 85.6 + 30 log v/80 3.2
3.1. The road surface categories R3 79.8 + 31.4 log v/90 2.9 86.6 + 30 log v/80 2.5

Based on a statistical analysis of the LAmax(vref) values, the pave-

ment types have been grouped into three categories, materialized
(Fig. 2) by the rectangles R1, R2 and R3. Only the surface types with
large enough samples have been taken.
For each vehicle category, the LAmax;Ri ðv Þ of road surface category
Ri has been evaluated by first determining the linear average
LAmax(v) of each pavement type (speed range 70–130 km/h for
the LVs, 70—90 km/h for the HVs), and then by averaging the
results within the category. In doing so, the techniques containing
large number of surfaces did not overweight the others in the
averaging process.
The rolling noise component Lr;Ri ðv Þ, has then been obtained by
subtracting from the global noise LAmax;Ri ðv Þ, the power unit com-
ponent of the vehicle category on horizontal road (cf. infra) and
by taking on the result a best fit of the form Lr;Ri ðv Þ ¼ Lr;Ri ðv ref Þ þ
bRi log v =v ref . The results are given in Table 1.
A unique value, bRi ¼ 30 dB(A)/decade, has been retained for the
HV category on the ground that: (a) the hypothesis was found sta-
tistically acceptable, (b) variations on bRi had little consequences
on the global noise within the speed range, (c) the value is close
to the rolling noise evolutions measured on HVs with microphone
arrays [13].
Fig. 3. LV category, R3 surfaces: Lr,R3,LV(90) in function of surface age. Only the
The rolling noise component values are average values. For indi-
surface 2 years of age and older are plotted.
vidual predictions, the 95% confidence interval I95% given in Table 1
can be used.

The effect of age on the rolling noise component has been ob-
3.2. The ageing effect
tained by seeking, for each vehicle category, and within each pave-
ment category, a correlation between each surface’s Lr(vref) and the
The values given (Table 1) are considered to be representative of
age of the surface when the measurement was taken. Only surfaces
‘‘young” surfaces (0–2 years old).
more than 2 years were taken into account. An illustration is given
(Fig. 3) for light vehicle category and road surface category R3. The
5
The CPB and SPB results of the VL category are aggregated, both procedure have
results are given (Table 2).
been found to yield totally comparable results.
6
BBTM, very thin asphalt technique; BBUM, ultra thin asphalt concrete; BBDr,
Regarding the HV category, the level increase with age has been
porous asphalt concrete; BBSG, dense asphalt concrete; ECF, cold mix; BC, cement taken equal to 0.6 times the level increase obtained for the LV cat-
concrete; ES, surface dressing. egory on the ground that: (a) it was observed that the pass-by
864 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869
Table 2
Lr;Ri increase, in dB(A), with age a, in years 2 6 a 6 10.
LV HV
R1 0.50  (a  2) 0.30  (a  2)
R2 0.25  (a  2) 0.15  (a  2)
R3 0.20  (a  2) 0.12  (a  2)
LAmax(80) levels of the HV category could be estimated from the
LAmax(90) levels of the LV category, by the relation
LAmax;HV ð80Þ ¼ 0:6  LAmax;LV ð90Þ þ 38:2 dBðAÞ ðsee ½14Þ
(b) the 0.6 dB/dB hypothesis was statistically acceptable.
4. The power unit noise component
The traffic power unit noise (PU noise) component is given in
GdBN08 in function of traffic speed and acceleration, and of road
declivity.7 The engine noise of a vehicle depends on the engine
rpm and torque, i.e. on the vehicle’s speed and acceleration, on the
road declivity, and on the gear ratio used. The determination of
the traffic PU noise component is thus based on two types of infor-
mation: the vehicles’ power unit noise emission in function of speed,
gear ratio and acceleration (power unit noise emission laws), and the
way the vehicles are driven in traffic (driving behavior).
4.1. The light vehicles at steady speed
The LVs power unit noise emission laws at steady speed, on hor-
izontal roads, have been determined from CPB measurements on
14 recent vehicles of different motorization (six were diesel en-
gines) and cubic capacities (from 1.2 to 2.1 cc) [7,8]. The pass-by
measurements were taken at different running speeds and gear ra-
tios. For each vehicle the relation x(v, g) = q(g)  v between the en-
gine speed x and the vehicle speed and gear ratio was quantified.8
The engine noise, assumed to depend on the engine speed only, the
rolling noise component, assumed to depend on the vehicle speed
only, have been formulated by polynomial expressions with un-
known coefficients:
X
2 X
1 higher the torque). The influence of the declivity on the power unit
j x j v
Lp ðx; ap Þ ¼ ap;j  log ; Lr ðv ; ar Þ ¼ ar;j  log ð12Þ
j¼0
2000 j¼0
90
and the ap, ar coefficients determined by minimization of the mean
square error between the calculated and the measured values of the
n pass-byes:
minimize 1X n
 2
ap ; ar  LAmax ðv q ; xq Þ  Lp ðxq ; ap Þ  Lr ðv q ; ar Þ ð13Þ
n q¼1
The example (Fig. 4) illustrates the LAmax of a passenger car in
function of speed with the gear ratio as parameter. The dots are
the measured LAmax values. The lines are evaluation results: the
thick dotted grey lines are the power unit noise component Lp(v, g)
at the different gear ratios; the thick continuous grey line is the
rolling noise component Lr(v); the thin continuous black lines are
the resulting total noise Lp(v, g)  Lr(v). The evaluated total noise
is seen to fit well the measurements. For this vehicle, the power
unit noise predominates over the rolling noise in first gear, the roll-
ing noise predominates over the power unit noise in gear 4 and
gear 5. The use of all five gear ratios is not necessary for the deter-
7
The possible noise attenuation of the power unit component by porous
pavements, was not sufficiently well mastered and quantified to be included in the
GdBN08 calculations.
8
q(g) is a coefficient which depends on the transmission characteristics and on the
tyre geometry.
mination of the ap, ar coefficients: two gear ratios may suffice pro-
vided no component predominates over the other in both gear
ratios; calculations based on measurements at gear 2 and gear 3
for instance yield practically as good results (graph to the right)
as calculations based on measurements at all gears (graph to the
left).
The driving behavior, i.e. the percentage at which each gear ra-
tio is used by actual drivers in steady speed traffic conditions, has
been determined from a database on driving behavior available at
INRETS [6]: this database contains on board continuous recordings
(vehicle speed, engine speed, gear ratio, . . . ) made on vehicles
while driven by their owners in their everyday live. The recordings
cover a few weeks period. The steady speed driving behavior is
summarized (Fig. 5).
The evolution with speed of a light vehicle power unit noise
Lp(v), taking into account the driving behavior, is taken as the
sum of the vehicle’s power unit noise at the different gear ratios,
weighted by the percentage at which each gear ratio is used:
X
5
Lp ðv Þ ¼ 10 log ag ðv Þ100:1Lp ðg;v Þ ð14Þ
g¼1
where Lp(g,v) is the vehicle’s power unit noise at gear ratio g and
speed v (Eq. (12)), ag(v) is the percentage at which the gear ratio
g is used at speed v (Fig. 5).
The PU noise component of the LV category is the average of the
14 vehicles’ power unit noise:
1X n
Lp;LV ðv Þ ¼ 10 log 100:1Lpk ðv Þ ; n ¼ 14 ð15Þ
n k¼1
where Lpk is the Lp of vehicle k. The result is fitted by straight seg-
ments Lp,LV (v) = Lp(90) + blogv/90. The Lp(90) and b values are given
(Table 3), Lp,LV(v) is drawn (Fig. 6).
The declivity influence on the PU noise at steady speed was ad-
dressed both theoretically and experimentally. The resistance to
motion created by an uphill declivity (climbing resistance) in-
creases the torque and consequently the engine noise. The torque
increase depends on the gear ratio (the higher the gear ratio, the
noise is thus expected to be smaller at low speeds (low gear ratios)
than at high speeds; on the other hand, the engine noise being
masked by the rolling noise at high speeds, the influence of the
declivity on the overall noise at high speeds is expected to be small
[16].
Analyses of CPB measurements on tracks [17] and SPB measure-
ments in situ [18] could not conclude on a road declivity effect on
the PU noise for the range of declivities addressed in the GdBN08
(lower than 6%). The incidence on the global noise being in any
case very small, the value retained for the steady speed/uphill or
steady speed/downhill situation is the value obtained for steady
speed/horizontal road case.
4.2. The light vehicles in acceleration
The LV PU noise emission laws for acceleration on horizontal
roads was determined from CPB measurements on 12 of the previ-
ous vehicles (6 diesel, 6 gasoline). The driver was asked to maintain
‘‘reasonable” accelerations; the departure point was taken at
increasing distances from the measurement zone in order to
pass-by at higher and higher speeds. The CPB levels were measured
at three locations, 10 m apart, along the running path. The vehicle
speed was taken at each of the locations and the vehicle accelera-
tion c was determined from the speed evolution between the loca-
tions [15]. The power unit noise was obtained by energy
 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869 865

Fig. 4. Example of a passenger car noise emission law at steady speed. The lines are calculation results. Thick dot lines: Lp at the different gear ratios. Thick continuous line: Lr.
Thin lines: Lp  Lr. Symbols: measured LAmax. LEFT: all the LAmax are used for the Lp,Lr evaluations (Eq. (13)). Right: LAmax at gear 2 and gear 3 only are used for the Lp, Lr
evaluations.

gear ratio and speed LV − power unit noise component

100
90
R1
90

80 R5

80
70 R2
LAmax [dB(A)]

R3 R4
60
%

50
70
acceleration
40
deceleration
30
steady speed
60
histogramme

20

Trace_lmot_vl
10

0
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 50
5 10 20 40 80 120
km/h
traffic speed [km/h]
Fig. 5. Percentage at which each gear ratio of a 5 gear LV is used at steady speed
condition. Fig. 6. LV category. The PU noise component depends on the traffic flow type but
not on the declivity (jsj 6 6%). No value is given below 20 km/h for steady speed
condition: it is considered that no steady flow occurs below that speed.

Table 3
PU noise component. LV category. Steady speed, all declivities (jsj 6 6%)Lp,LV(v) = Lp, The driving behavior in traffic condition has been assumed:
LV(90) + b  log v/90. when accelerating, the driver seeks for maximum engine torque
v km/h 20–30 30–110 110–130 and selects the gear ratio accordingly (‘‘optimum” gear ratio).
Lp,LV(90) dB(A) 60.6 66.3 64.6 The vehicle’s power noise level in function of speed, in acceler-
b dB(A)/decade 0 12.0 31.3 ating condition is thus Lp(v, gopt(v), cmax(v, gopt(v))) where gopt(v) is
the ‘‘optimum” gear ratio at speed v and cmax(v, gopt(v)) the maxi-
mum acceleration measured10 at speed v and gear gopt(v).
substraction of the rolling noise component(assumed not to de- The PU noise component of the LV category is the energy aver-
pend on acceleration) from the global noise9: age of the vehicles’ power noise levels. Similar to the steady speed
case, the result is fitted by straight segments Lp,LV(v) = Lp,LV(90) +
Lp ðv ; g; cÞ ¼ LAmax ðv ; g; cÞ  Lr ðv Þ ð16Þ b log v/90. The Lp,LV(90) and b values are given (Table 4); Lp,LV(v) is
drawn (Fig. 6). The road declivity is considered to introduce no
The pass-by speed ranged from 20 km/h to 100 km/h and the accel- effect on the PU Noise of LVs in acceleration.
eration ranged up to 2.5 m/s2.

9 10
This energy substraction may be used provided the rolling noise contribution to The ‘‘reasonable” accelerations practiced by the driver introduce some driving
the global noise is not too important; only the first three gear ratios were thus used. behavior aspect.
866 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869

Table 4 4.3. The light vehicles in deceleration

PU noise component. LV category. Acceleration, all declivities (jsj 6 6%)
Lp,LV(v) = Lp,LV(90) + b  log v/90.
CPB measurements on horizontal road showed that for a same
v km/h 5–20 20–100 100–130 speed/gear ratio, pass-byes in decelerating conditions or at steady
Lp,LV(90) dB(A) 85.7 70 68.2 speed come out to have the same noise level [9]. The vehicle’s
b dB(A)/decade 24.1 0 38.6
power unit noise emission law taken for the deceleration is thus
the one obtained for the steady speed condition.

Table 6
Table 5 PU noise component. HV category steady speed (c = 0), horizontal road (s = 0)
PU noise component. LV category. Deceleration, all declivities (jsj 6 6%) Lp,HV(v,0,0) = Lp,HV(80) + b  log v/80.
Lp,LV(v) = Lp,LV(90) + b  log v/90.
v km/h 5–70 70–100
v km/h 5–10 10–25 25–80 80–110 110–130 Lp,HV(80) dB(A) 73 73
Lp,LV(90) dB(A) 55.5 73.3 66.0 66.3 64.6
b dB(A)/decade 0 13.0
b dB(A)/decade 0 18.7 5.5 12.0 31.3

HV − power unit noise INRETS/ LTE HV − driving behavior INRETS/ LTE

85 85

80 80
25 25
x100 rpm

x100 rpm
20 20
dB(A)

dB(A)

75 75
15 15

10 10
70 70

65 5 65 5
15 20 30 50 70 90 15 20 30 50 70 90
km/h km/h
Fig. 7. Heavy vehicle power unit noise. Graph to the left: evaluated power unit noise. Graph to the right: taking into account the driving behavior. The engine rpm is indicated
on the right scale, the noise levels on the left scale. Dotted lines: values fort the different gear ratios. The pass-byes at the ‘‘appropriate” gear ratio are indicated by the dark
filled symbols.

uphill 5% Lcal − Lmeas

95 10

−0.46 0.26 −0.10 0.10 0.05 −0.17

90
5

85
dB(A)

dB(A)

80
Power unit
Rolling
−5
75
tr_slope

tr_slope

± 1.72 ± 1.38 ± 1.58 ± 1.48 ± 1.37 ± 1.08

70 −10
40 50 60 70 80 90 40 50 60 70 80 90
km/h km/h

Fig. 8. Uphill site, HV at steady speed. Left: measured LAmax(vk) and calculated power unit and rolling noise components (Eq. (19)). Right: differences between the
construction and the measurements. Thick lines: mean of the differences over each 10 km/h range. Thin lines: standard deviations over the same range.
 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869 867

Two possible driving behaviors are taken into account: one
which uses the engine brake and selects the ‘‘optimum” gear ratio,
the other which just uses the brakes (the gear ratio is then the one
corresponding to the steady speed situation). For both behaviors,
the situations leading to gear 1 are however replaced by the use
of gear 2; if the speed turns out to be too small for a gear 2 use,
the gear neutral, engine at idle, is taken.
For each vehicle an evaluation is made for each driving behavior
and the energy average taken. The PU noise component of the light
vehicle category is then the energy average of the vehicles’ power
unit noise levels. Similar to the steady speed case, the result is fit-
ted by straight segments. The coefficients are given (Table 5), the
corresponding curve is drawn (Fig. 6). The road declivity is consid-
ered to introduce no effect on the PU noise of LVs in deceleration.
4.4. The HVs at steady speed on horizontal road
The HV PU noise component for steady speed condition on hor-
izontal road was obtained from CPB measurements on seven trac-
tor trailers [10]. Four trucks were from the ‘‘new” generation (less
than 6 months old, mileage from 400 km to 77,000 km, 12–16 gear
ratios), two were from the ‘‘old” generation (7 years/0.36 Mkm,
10 years/1 Mkm, 8 gear ratios). Pass-by speeds ranged from
20 km/h to 70 km/h. For each considered speed the driver was in-
structed to run three pass-byes: one with the gear ratio he felt best
suited to the speed (‘‘appropriate” gear ratio), one with the next
higher gear ratio, and one with the next lower gear ratio.
The evaluations of the HV power unit and rolling noise compo-
as a parameter. Each dotted line corresponds to a gear ratio; sym-
bols indicate the measured pass-byes. At a given gear ratio noise
increases with speed, at a given speed it decreases when higher
gear ratios are selected.
The determination of the gear ratio used in function of speed
(driving behavior) was part of the measurement campaign (selec-
tion of the ‘‘appropriate” gear ratio). The conclusion is that the dri-
ver tends to keep the engine running at constant speed, which
corroborates previous observations by others ([11] for instance).
Due to the large number of available gear ratios, the modeled vehi-
cle power unit noise, taking into account the driving behavior, is
thus a speed independent level (the mean of the pass-by values
at the ‘‘appropriate” gear ratios) except for the last gear ratio,
where the level increases with speed. This is illustrated (Fig. 7)
graph to the right.
The PU noise component of the HV category is the average of
the individual results (Table 6). These values were confirmed by
a supplementary campaign on seven more tractor trailers.
LV Noise Emission
90
steady speed
horizontal road
80 R3 category
dB(A)

nents were made using the minimization procedure (Eq. (13)) [12].
The results obtained for the PU noise look typically like illustrated 70
(Fig. 7) graph to the left: the engine revolution (right scale) and GdB80
noise (left scale) are drawn in function of speed with the gear ratio

compar_gdb_R3_eng
GdBN
R3

Table 7 60
PU noise component. HV category correction term DLp(s, c) (Eq. (17)) in dB(A).

s (%) Horizontal Uphill Downhill

0–2 2–6 2–6 20 30 40 50 70 90 120

Steady speed 0 2  (s  2) s2 km/h

Acceleration 5 5 + max[2  (s  4.5), 0] 5
Deceleration 0 0 s2 Fig. 10. New (GdBN08), and previous (GdB80), LV noise emissions at steady speed
on horizonal road (category R3).

GdBN08 GdBN08
90
Light Vehicles Heavy Vehicles
R3
horizontal road horizontal road
R2
steady speed steady speed
80 90 R3
a ≤ 2 years R1 a ≤ 2 years
LAmax [dB(A)]

LAmax [dB(A)]

R2

R1

70 80
INRETS /compar_R1R2R3

INRETS /compar_R1R2R3

t
onen
comp
r unit
powe power unit component
60 70

20 30 40 50 70 90 120 20 30 40 50 70 90 120
km/h km/h
Fig. 9. New noise emissions, in function of speed, for steady speed condition on horizontal roads. Left: light vehicles. Right: heavy vehicles. Grey curves: power unit noise
component and rolling noise components (R1, R2 and R3). Dark curves: the resulting noise emissions (Eq. (11)).
868 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869

road surface effect road surface effect

8 8
horizontal road horizontal road
7 7
steady speed acceleration
6 6
a ≤ 2 years a ≤ 2 years
5 5

dB(A)
dB(A)

4 4

3 3

INRETS enjeu_R1R3

INRETS enjeu_R1R3
2 2

1 1
LV LV
HV HV
0 0
20 30 50 70 90 130 20 30 50 70 90 130
km/h km/h
Fig. 11. Expected level difference between emission values on R3 and R1 road categories. Traffic on horizontal roads. Left: steady speed traffic. Right: accelerating traffic.

4.5. Influence of declivity or acceleration on the HV PU noise
component
The influence of acceleration/deceleration on the HV PU noise
component on horizontal road, or of the declivity on the PU noise
component at steady speed, has been determined from SPB mea-
surements. The acceleration is addressed here in terms of flow
type: steady speed, accelerating, and decelerating.
The driving behavior is assumed the same than for steady speed
(keep the engine running at constant speed). The PU noise compo-
nent is taken to differ by a constant from the horizontal road/stea-
dy speed value (Eq. (17)):
stream from roundabouts11 so as to obtain a large speed range:
100 m, 200 m and 400 m downstream for the acceleration, 25 m,
50 m and 100 m upstream for the deceleration. Acceleration was
found to increase the HV PU noise component by 5 dB(A) on the
average, while deceleration was found not to modify the PU noise
component (cf. Table 7).
No experimental data were available for the evaluation of the
combined effects of declivity and acceleration on the HV PU noise
component. Qualitative analysis of vehicle operation led to the
inequality relation:
DLp ðs – 0; c – 0Þ P maxfDLp ð0; cÞ; DLp ðs; 0Þg ð20Þ

Lp ðv ; s; cÞ ¼ Lp;HGV ðv ; 0; 0Þ þ DLp ðs; cÞ ð17Þ The value retained is the maximum (cf. Table 7).

where the Lp(v, s, c) notation indicates the dependency of Lp with re-

spect to slope s and acceleration c.
The rolling noise component, considered not to depend on the
acceleration, nor on the declivity, is expressed by Eq. (18), consis-
tent with the speed evolution for the HV category (Table 1):
Lr ðv Þ ¼ Lr ð80Þ þ 30 log v =80
For each site the DLp and Lr(80) coefficients are determined by best
fitting the construction Lp(v)  Lr(v) to the pass-by measured
values:
minimize 1X n
DLp ; Lr ð80Þ  ½LAmax ðv k Þ  Lp ðv k Þ  Lr ðv k Þ2
n k¼1
The uphill SPB measurements at steady speed have been per-
formed on five sites with declivities ranging from 3% to 6%, the
downhill measurements have been performed on one site with a
6.4% declivity. On each site, measurements were taken at different
spots along the declivity (3–7 depending on the site), with at least
80 vehicles measured at each spot. For each given site, the mea-
surements over the different spots have been aggregated, which
implicitly assumes that the rolling noise component was the same
on these spots. The illustration given (Fig. 8) corresponds to mea-
surements on a site with 5% uphill declivity; measurements were
taken on three spots (259 vehicles altogether).
The resulting correction values are reported (Table 7). The
GdBN08 does not address declivities beyond 6%.
The SPB measurements for acceleration/deceleration on hori-
zontal roads were taken at several distances downstream and up-
5. Some global noise emissions and comments
The data given (Tables 1–7) contain the necessary information
for the evaluation, in dB(A), of the emission values used in France
for traffic noise predictions: they enable the calculation of the roll-
ð18Þ ing noise and the PU noise components, the global level is obtained
energy addition (Eq. (11)). A few examples and comments are gi-
ven in this chapter.
The illustrations (Fig. 9) correspond to steady speed flows on
horizontal roads. The PU noise component and the rolling noise
component (for the road categories R1, R2 and R3) are drawn in
ð19Þ grey, the global noise emissions are drawn in black. It is seen that
the rolling noise starts to overcome the PU noise at rather low
speeds (below 40 km/h for all categories).
Pavements types of the 70s may be considered to belong to the
R3 category. Comparisons with the GdB80 show that at speeds
higher than 70 km/h, the new noise emissions on R3 are practically
equal to the previous values; this means that, for this category of
pavements, the average rolling noise is today the same than some
25 years ago. At low speeds, the new noise emissions are system-
atically lower; this can be interpreted as resulting from a PU noise
decrease between the 70s and today. The comparison for the LV
category at steady speed on horizontal road is illustrated
(Fig. 10); the noise emissions are the same above 40 km/h.
The road surface effect on traffic noise can be characterized by
the expected level difference between emission values on R3 and
11
Three sites for the acceleration, two sites for the deceleration.
 J.-F. Hamet et al. / Applied Acoustics 71 (2010) 861–869
on R1 road categories. It is drawn (Fig. 11), graph to the left for a
steady speed flow, and graph to the right for accelerating vehicles.
Both flows are on horizontal roads. For accelerating flows, the PU
noise component overcomes the rolling noise below some 40 km/
h; the expected road surface effect is thus small in that speed
range.
6. Conclusion
A new traffic noise prediction method is about to be published
in France. The noise emission values are given through the contri-
butions of two independent terms: a power unit noise component
Lp, function of traffic speed, traffic flow type (steady speed, acceler-
ation) and road declivity, and a rolling noise component Lr, func-
tion of traffic speed and road pavement. Both terms are given in
global dB(A) levels by means of a few simple numerical expres-
sions. Their determinations are based on in situ experimental
observations and take into account the vehicles’ noise emissions
laws (noise as function of the vehicles’ parameters), and the way
the vehicles are driven in traffic conditions (driving behavior).
The method split the vehicles in the same two categories than
the previous method: light vehicles (below 3.5 t) and heavy vehi-
cles (3.5 t and above). The road pavement influence is addressed
by grouping the pavement types in three categories (R1, R2 and
R3), each with its Lr(v) law for each vehicle category.
The R3 category includes the pavement types used in the 70s.
Comparison with the previous method shows that in the high
speed range, where the rolling noise component predominates,
the new noise emission values on category R3 pavement are the
same.
869
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