Determination of Heavy Truck Noise Sources under Actual Highway Operating Conditions Using Acoustic Beamforming

Acoustic beamforming was used to localize noise sources on heavy trucks operating on highways in California and North Carolina at a total of 20 sites. Over 1,200 trucks were measured under a variety of operating conditions, including cruise on level highways, on upgrades, down degrades, low speed acceleration, and for various speeds and pavements. The contours produced by the beamforming measurements were used to identify specific source contributions under these conditions and for a variety of heavy trucks. Consistently, the highest noise levels were seen at the tire-pavement interface, with lesser additional noise radiated from the engine compartment. Noise from elevated exhaust stacks was only documented for less than 5% of the trucks measured. The results were further reduced to produce vertical profiles of noise levels versus height above the roadway. The profiles were normalized to the highest noise level at ground level. The profile averages from each measurement site were found to be independent of speed and operating conditions and were consistent from site-to-site. The highest levels were also related to the tire-pavement noise measured, independently, using on-board sound intensity methods. The results of this research are presented, and their implications for highway noise and noise modeling are discussed.