New Approach to the Uncertainty Assessment of Acoustic Effects in the Environment

Abstract

The acoustic climate assessment needed for the selection of solutions (technical, legal and organisational), which will help to minimise the acoustic hazards in the analysed areas, is realised on the basis of acoustic maps. The reference computational algorithms, assigned to them, require very thorough preparation of input data for the considered noise source model representing – in the best possible way – the acoustic climate. These input data are burdened with certain uncertainties in this class of computational tasks. The uncertainties are related to the problem of selecting proper argument values (from the interval of their possible variability) for the modelled processes. This situation has a direct influence on the uncertainty of acoustic maps. The idea of applying the interval arithmetic for the assessment of acoustic models uncertainty is formulated in this paper. The computational formalism assigned to the interval arithmetic was discussed. The rules of interval estimations for the model solutions determining the sound level distribution around the analysed noise source – caused by possible errors in the input data – were presented. The application of this formalism was illustrated in uncertainty assessments of modelling acoustic influences of the railway noise linear source on the environment.