Purpose:

Noise from military training and testing operations can cause significant impacts on the surrounding area, resulting in adverse public reaction and consequent impacts on training capability. One element of an effective noise management strategy is the ability to forecast and assess community noise exposure. Noise dosage assessment models are useful for a variety of purposes, including for planning and siting new ranges and for planning training operations to minimize noise impacts on community health and welfare. These models also are used to assess noise dosage in order to guide compatible land use decisions and to assess the impact of training activity on endangered species. Two new blast noise assessment models recently have been developed and are ready for validation and demonstration. BNOISE2 enables the calculation and display of noise exposure contours for artillery and explosive operations, and SARNAM provides a similar capability for small-arms ranges. The final noise dosage estimates derived by the two models can then be combined to obtain an overall noise exposure assessment.

Description:

The proposed project will validate the accuracy of SARNAM and BNOISE2 and will demonstrate their applicability to noise management. Model algorithms will be validated by comparing measured noise levels in training scenarios with model results. The demonstration will consist of using each model to address realistic installation noise management problems under operational conditions at an Army installation. The models will be used to first assess the noise dose emission for the installation. They will then be used to explore revisions to the training program to reduce the community noise dose. The primary performance measure will be the amount of practical noise dose reduction that can be effected by using the models.

Benefits:

SARNAM and BNOISE2 will be of use to all of the Services for range design and noise management. BNOISE2 will find utility within the private sector for applications such as quarry and mine activities that involve the use of explosives. In addition, SARNAM will be of considerable use at private and law enforcement small-arms ranges. The benefits of SARNAM and BNOISE2 include the following: 1) the quantification of blast noise impact will be improved, facilitating noise management for existing and new ranges; 2) the military's technical capability for noise management and operations planning will be materially improved; 3) decision management will be aided with regard to expending resources to acquire additional land as a buffer to avoid excessive noise impacts; and 4) a contribution will be made to the national welfare by preserving and facilitating training while reducing community noise levels. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2007)

Contact:

Dr. Larry Pater
Construction Engineering Research Laboratories
P.O. Box 9005
Champaign, IL 61826
Telephone: (217) 373-7253
Fax: (217) 373-7251
E-mail: l-pater@cecer.army.mil