Noise caused by road traffic is in today's world one of the most significant environmental pollutants that is causing various health problems. Due to the complexity of the noise generated by the road traffic it needs to be reduced by several measures that depend on many factors. In the master thesis, I focused on noise barriers that are frequently used protection against the road noise as a secondary action. With the use of noise barriers, we create a physical barrier between the road and its surroundings. The noise barriers reduce the noise in different ways. The efficiency of individual noise barrier depends mainly on its geometrical measurements, acoustic properties, weather conditions, on the number of vehicles and their speed when they pass the barrier and the position of the perceiver versus the source of the noise.
According to the results of noise measurements that were taken next to the road at two different locations, the equivalent noise levels were too high for the inhabitants living in the surrounding area. Therefore, noise barriers would be an appropriate solution to reduce the noise caused by road traffic. I tested the efficiency of the barriers with two noise meters, which showed, that the noise barriers successfully reduced the noise levels. Based on the geometric dimensions of the barriers I also checked the credibility of the measured data by manually calculating the reduced noise levels. Afterward, I compared the calculated and measured values and tried to distinguish the differences between the first and second type of noise barrier.
From my results, I found out that the selected noise barriers effectively reduce traffic noise. Nevertheless, the efficiency of each noise barrier should be tested in a specific time period due to the exposure to the weather conditions that reduce their effectiveness.
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