SoundPLAN Environmental Noise Analysis Solution

SoundPLAN is an environmental noise analysis software which was developed by Braunstein + Berndt GmbH back in 1986, and it was soon become the standard of German outdoor noise analysis software. Now it is one of the mainstream environmental noise analysis software. SoundPLAN provides several modules for road noise , railway noise, industrial noise, indoor noise and aircraft noise problems, and it is commonly used for applications such as road development, city development and industrial area development. SoundPLAN also provides several specialized modules such as 3D graphics, Google Map interface and Industrial Expert modules to help users in acoustical analysis. Currently, the latest SoundPLAN version is 9.0, and here are some of the commonly used modules:

l   Environmental Noise Analysis Modules:

Ø   Road Noise Propagation: SoundPLAN provide standards such as RLS-90, TNS and ASJ, which helps the users to calculate the roads noise based on the road design and traffics.

Ø   Rail Noise Propagation: SoundPLAN provide standards such Schall 03 and Schall 03 – 2012 (2006), which helps the users to calculate the railway noise based on the number of trains pass through and the train type.

Ø   Industrial Noise Propagation: SoundPLAN provide standards such as ISO 9613-2, which can use point, line and area sources to simulate the industrial sources or noise caused by other human activities. SoundPLAN also provide stage model for users to evaluate the noise from loudspeaker systems in a concerts or other activities; this function will take the interference of phase into consideration, but it needs the phase data generated by NoizCalc software.

About NoizCalc：http://www.dbaudio.com/en/systems/details/noizcalc.html 

Ø   Aircraft Noise Propagation: SoundPLAN provides European standards such as AzB, Doc 20, and CNOSSOS. We can calculate the noise around an airport based on the number of aircrafts fly in and out, as well as the type of aircrafts.

Traffic noise distributions in a city

Industrial noise distrubutions

l   Indoor Noise problem

SoundPLAN provides Indoor Factory module for indoor noise problems. We can assign the noise insulation and absorption data for each wall, window, door and floor/ceiling to obtain an accurate simulation of how a noise transmitting from a room to another or transmitting to outdoor. SoundPLAN use the sound particle diffractions to calculate the propagation of a sound, and this algorithm can take the diffraction effect into consideration, and thus, the simulation results will be more realistic.

    In order to evaluate the comfort in an office or meeting room, the Room Acoustics module provides reverberation time, STI (Speech Transmission Index)、Clarity、Definition and Early Decay Time analysis, it will help us build a comfortable working area.

Examples of SoundPLAN indoor noise analysis

Room acoustic analysis for a conference room

l   GIS Interface Module

Ø   Google Map Interface：We can obtain the elevation points, roads, railways, buildings and other data from Google Map, and we can obtain the open-street map as well. This is one of the function comes with GIS Interface module, but this will require the users to apply for Google Map API key. The usage of Google Map API key may result in additional costs from Google, you may check the link below for how Google charge for the usage of API keys:

https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/javascript/usage-and-billing?hl=zh-tw

Ø   WMS Server：This is another function comes with GIS Interface module, which provides the means for users to download GIS data from other websites. This will require the users to set the link for website, and the account and passwords to login.

Google Map Interface

Imported Geography Data (Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall)

Imported Geography Data (3D, Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall)

l   Abundant graphic display

SoundPLAN provides several modules to provide abundant graphical display. 3D Graphic modules allow the user to view the model in 3D solid graphics, which can provide a clearer view than the wireframe view. 3D Animation modules can show how the noise generated by a train affect the environment dynamically. The Cartography module can let the users to insert customized icons in a result plot, as well as let users to put several plots side by side. This can help the user to generate a clearer result plots in their reports.

3D view of an indoor noise distribution

3D view of a factory model and noise distribution

If you would like to know more about SoundPLAN, we are welcome to contact us.

SoundPLAN official website：https://www.soundplan.eu/en/