Improving AEDT Noise Modeling of Mixed Ground Surfaces

TRB's Airport Cooperative Research Program (ACRP) Web-Only Document 32: Improving AEDT Noise Modeling of Mixed Ground Surfaces develops a method to model the effects of single- and mixed-impedance surfaces on the propagation of aircraft noise in a manner suitable for model implementation to improve the noise prediction accuracy of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Aviation Environmental Design Tool (AEDT). AEDT is an integrated noise model, which currently includes a lateral attenuation adjustment to account for the effects of lateral aircraft directivity and for acoustic propagation over soft ground. This research includes an investigation of additional methods to supplement the lateral attenuation adjustment to allow for modeling noise propagation over hard and mixed ground types in AEDT.