Characterizing noise barriers: SOPRANOISE final report and outcomes

SOPRANOISE targets a three-step approach for assessing the in-situ intrinsic acoustic performance of road/railway noise barriers in regard to airborne sound insulation and sound reflection under direct sound field conditions. This approach goes from the in-situ inspections method (targeting at the acoustic effect in the far-field) to the standardized measuring methods EN 1793-5 and 6, with "quick and safe" measuring methods in between. Papers about SOPRANOISE have already been presented in 2020 and 2021 as progress reports. The research ended in February 2022 and the final outcomes are now presented. The main part of the pending work has been done within Work Package 4 (WP4). Herein, a new "quick and safe" method was designed and validated both in the lab and in situ. The new measuring equipment is portable, lightweight and uses a linear antenna; the measurement itself is fully automated and the results show a very good correlation with full EN 1793-5/-6 results. WP4 results are particularly successful and, together with the in-situ inspection, those methods are ready to be submitted to the relevant CEN/TC226/WG6 working group to draft a new framework on noise barriers assessment. All main reports are public available on the SOPRANOISE and CEDR webpages.