Engineering Models
Engineering models are used for a wide range of applications, among others for noise mapping. In order to also allow the calculation of huge projects in reasonable time compromises between accuracy and the calculation effort are necessary. Therefore other propagation algorithms have to be implemented compared to reference models.
Empa has a long tradition in the development of engineering models, going back to the 1980’s with a first generation of road, railway and aircraft traffic as well as shooting noise models (StL-86, SEMIBEL, FLULA, Wapa).
The current generation of engineering models is labeled with son. Already available are sonROAD for road traffic noise, sonRAIL are railway noise and sonARMS for shooting noise. Currently being developed is sonAIR for aircraft noise, which shall replace the currently used model FLULA2 within the next years. In another ongoing project an update of the road traffic model sonROAD to sonROAD18 is undertaken. All members of the son family feature a uniform layout with a clear separation between sound emission and sound propagation and incorporate an identical propagation core, called sonX.
Note: The sonRAIL emission model is available as a free of charge web application. A derived application allows the calculation of pass-by noise of trams (sonTRAM).
