Impact of meteorological conditions on noise propagation from large industrial plant

The assessment of the impact of noise of big industrial plant on the urban sound climate is mostly based on the calculation of noise maps, using a set of standard calculation schemes for the evaluation of the contribution of different sources. Noise simulations require knowledge of the sound power levels of the noise sources and of the propagation of sound from the plant to the surroundings. Certain meteorological conditions such as wind direction, wind speed, wind turbulence, humidity, temperature, temperature inversion and cloud cover, can have significant effects on sound propagation. The two principal meteorological variables to take in account in noise simulations are wind gradient and vertical temperature gradient. The aim of this study is compare the most used models of propagation implemented in different acoustic commercial software.