Sound propagation around rigid barriers laterally confined by tall buildings

Abstract

This paper focuses on the propagation of sound waves in the presence of acoustic barriers placed close to very tall buildings. The boundary element method (BEM) is used to model the acoustic barrier, while the presence of the tall buildings is taken into account by using the image source method. Different geometries are analyzed, representing the cases of a single building, two buildings forming a corner and three buildings defining a laterally confined space. The acoustic barrier is assumed to be non-absorbing, and all the buildings and the ground are modeled as infinite rigid plane surfaces. Calculations are performed in the frequency domain and time signals are then obtained by means of Inverse Fourier Transforms. The sound pressure loss provided by the acoustic barrier is computed, illustrating the importance of the lateral confinements.