Empirical Acoustic Model for Asphalt Surface Mixes

• Main Authors: Bin Yu, Qing Lu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: RTU Press 2013-09-01
• Series: The Baltic Journal of Road and Bridge Engineering
• Subjects: on-board sound intensity; asphalt mixes; panel data; econometrics; empirical model; noise
• Online Access: https://bjrbe-journals.rtu.lv/article/view/3564

In this paper, an empirical acoustic model was developed for four asphalt surface mixes, including conventional dense-graded asphalt concrete (DGAC), open-graded asphalt concrete (OGAC), rubberized open-graded asphalt concrete (RAC-O), and rubberized gap-graded asphalt concrete (RAC-G). Tire/pavement noise data were collected and converted from in-service flexible pavements using an on-board sound intensity (OBSI) method, for four consecutive years. Because the panel structured noise data contain potential violations to basic assumptions of ordinary least square models, several econometric techniques were used to address the violations and develop rational models. Specifically, instrumental variables and a multinomial logit (MNL) model were used to address endogeneity, and a two-way randomeffect model was used to capture the unobserved heterogeneity. The estimated model suggests that tire/pavement noise increases with pavement age and mean profile depth (MPD), and decreases with air-void content of surface mixes. The noise levels of the four asphalt surface mixes rank as: RAC-O < OGAC < RAC-G < DGAC.