Exposure-response relationships from railway noise in the presence of vibration

Koziel, Z

Abstract

The main aim of this thesis is to develop exposure-response relationships for noise,
vibration, and combined effects from noise and vibration. Examinations of nonacoustical
factors such as noise sensitivity, noise acceptance, gender, age, and sleep
disturbance are also performed in this project. Many studies have previously been
conducted to investigate community response to transportation noise in residential
areas. Comparatively few studies have investigated community response to vibration
exposure, and fewer still the combined effects of noise and vibration. This study of
exposure-response relationships for noise and vibration therefore presents a potentially
significant need contribution for the problems of these kinds.
This work was performed as part of the Defra funded project "NANR209: Human
response to vibration in residential environments" which was conducted between January
2008 and March 2011. The database for the project was obtained by undertaking a
social survey questionnaire along with measurements of vibration. The project
addressed railway, construction and internal sources of vibration. This thesis concerns
railway exposure for which the database contains 931 cases. The face to face interviews
took place within participants' dwellings. In 542 properties out of 931, internal vibration
was recorded and calculated utilizing a number of vibration indices, two of which are
VDVb,24h and RMS Wk. Vibration exposure has been predicted for the remaining cases.
Noise exposure in the form of Lden has been calculated for 843 out of 931 cases using the
Calculation of Railway Noise procedure (Department of Transport, 1995). It has been
estimated that maximal error that can be expected from prediction in this thesis is equal
to ±10 dB(A) at the 95% confidence level. On the other hand, maximal error that can be
expected from vibration measurements is equal to ±2.2 dB or ±6.2 dB, with regard to
"internal measurements" and "no measurements", respectively.
It is concluded from analyses of combined effects that noise and vibration additively
contribute to the proportion of people reporting little, moderate, and high annoyance
from exposure to railway noise in the presence of vibration.
[Work funded by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) UK]

Citation

Koziel, Z. Exposure-response relationships from railway noise in the presence of vibration. (Dissertation). University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Dissertation
• Deposit Date: Aug 13, 2021
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2011