THE EFFECT OF STRUCTURAL ELASTICITY ON THE EFFICIENCY OF NOISE BARRIERS

The efficiency of noise barriers is usually estimated neglecting their elastic behaviour. In this paper, the total vibro-acoustical response of simple barriers is considered. A variational approach with a boundary-element technique is used. It is a generalization of an existing formalism developed for the study of two-dimensional acoustical problems. The case of straight and thin barriers is studied. It is found that, at low frequencies, their vibrations can modify their insertion losses by several decibels.