TRANSPORTATION

RESEARCH BOARD

COMMITTEE A1FO4

"TRANSPORTATION RELATED

NOISE AND VIBRATION"

NEWSLETTER

DECEMBER 1996

FROM THE CHAIRMAN:

The Farmer's Almanac predicts sun and temperatures in the mid 70s for the week of the TRB Annual Meeting. Of course that forecast is for the Miami Beach area not Washington D.C. Never-the-less I guarantee that the weather in D.C. during the 1997 annual TRB meeting will at least be better than it was for the 1996 meeting.

I encourage all A1FO4 members to attend. We have a very exciting schedule of events. In addition to our two sessions on transportation noise issues, we have a session pertaining to the soon-to-be released FHWA Traffic Noise Model, as well as a session on the most comprehensive aircraft noise research program today, the NASA Advanced Subsonic Noise Research Program.

Hope to see all of you in January!!!

Committee A1F04-Related Sessions for

1997 Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board

(All Meeting Rooms Located at the Washington Hilton)

Session	Monday

January 13, 1997	Tuesday

January 14, 1997	Wednesday

January 15, 1997

MORNING

SESSIONS

9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

Highway Noise

Subcommittee

Conservatory Room	9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon

A1F04 Committee

Hemisphere Room	8:00 to 9:45 a.m.

Transportation	Noise Issues, Part 1

(Session 306)

10:15 a.m. to 12:00 noon

Transportation

Noise Issues, Part 2

(Session 332)

Lincoln Room

AFTERNOON

SESSIONS

2:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Aircraft Noise

Subcommittee

Hemisphere Room

EVENING

SESSIONS

7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

NASA Advanced

Subsonic Noise

Research Program

(Session 130)

Jefferson East

Room

-------------

7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Guided-Transit

Noise

Subcommittee

Edison Room	7:00

Awards Dinner

Orleans House	7:30 to 9:30 p.m.

FHWA TNM

(Session 379)

Jefferson East

Room

TRB Annual Meeting

Aircraft Noise Subcommittee

January 13, 1997 (2:00 to 5:00 p.m.)

Hemisphere Room

Washington Hilton Hotel

AGENDA

I.	Call to Order

II.	Welcome and Introduction of Members and Guests

III.	Review of 1995 Activities

IV.	Presentations

A.	Mr. Eric Stusnick, Wyle Laboratories: "An Overview of the Aircraft Community Noise Impact Model (ACNIM)"

B.	Mr. Eric Stusnick and Rick Thompson, Wyle Laboratories: "A Demonstration of ACNIM"

V.	Discussion

VI.	Announcements

TRB Annual Meeting

Committee A1FO4

January 14, 1997 (9:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon)

Hemisphere Room

Washington Hilton Hotel

AGENDA

I.	Call to Order

II.	Welcome and Introduction of Members and Guests

III.	Statements by Jon Williams, TRB Staff Liaison; and

Wayne Kober, Section Chairman

IV.	Review of Minutes from January 9, 1996 Meeting - Win Lindeman

V.	Reports

A.	Summer 1996 Meeting - Ken Polcak

B.	1996/1997 Activities & Sessions - Gregg Fleming

C.	Aircraft Noise Update - Eric Stusnick

D.	Guided-Transit Noise Update - Jim Nelson

E.	Highway Noise Update - Ken Polcak

VI.	Presentation

A.	Mr. Christopher Roof, U.S.DOT Volpe Center Acoustics Facility: "Hovercraft Noise on the Alaskan Peninsula"

VII.	Discussion

A.	A1FO4 Summer Meeting (1997) - Soren Pederson

B.	Others (Wall Journal)

VIII. Announcements

A.	A1FO4 Awards Dinner - Steve Ronning

B.	Others

IX.	Adjournment

1.	Domenick Billera called meeting to order at 9:15 am.

2.	Attendees introduced themselves.

3.	Jon Williams (new TRB liaison replacing Ken Cook) made some announcements.

a.	Jan 12-16, 1997 is the next annual meeting date.

b.	TRB is exploring options to deal with continually growing attendance, in taking a firm August 1 deadline for papers (D. Billera expressed opposition to this idea).

c.	Jon presented a certificate of appreciation to outgoing chairman D. Billera.

4.	Meeting minutes were not available as Secretary Win Lindeman could not attend.

5.	Membership:

a.	D. Billera announced that the new Chairman will be Gregg Fleming of the USDOT, Volpe National Transportation System Center.

b.	Committee membership is up for renewal; D. Billera expects G. Fleming to review the membership.

c.	D. Billera felt G. Fleming would welcome any suggestion on membership or future direction.

6.	D. Billera reported that the Summer Meeting of 1995 was hosted by Acentech & Volpe, and included excellent papers, technical briefs & social activities.

7.	Subcommittee Meetings: None of the chairs were present for highway, air or guided-transit meetings, but D. Billera ran all three with light attendance. The biggest agenda item was research needs, discussed below.

8.	Research Needs: Statements are due by end of January, and there will be a follow-up conference November 14-16 in Washington D.C. Noise has fared well relative to other environment areas in getting previously identified needs funded, but face stiff competition due in part to previous success. D. Billera circulated copies of the research needs, statement form.

9.	D. Billera announced a subsequent research topic for the Cooperative Research Program. Topics are due at the end of the month.

10.	Ulf Sandberg raised issue of whether the committee should widen scope to address vehicle/tire design for noise control.

11.	D. Billera felt that the committee should broaden itself in that direction. He noted that we should not limit ourselves to identifying research that we would only expect state DOTs to fund.

12.	Gary Billiard noted that the ASTM F-9 committee looks at tire noise (he serves on the ASTM E-17 subcommittee, which deals with other noise issues).

13.	Ulf Sandberg asserted that noise control regulations were essential to get European tire manufactures to deal with the issue. He also noted that transverse grooving, a common US noise problem, has been dealt with over a decade ago in Europe.

14.	HNTB felt that tire design was beyond scope of our work, but we can, and do focus on pavement design. He noted that porous pavement designs used in Europe wouldn't be embraced in much of the U.S. because of environmental conditions. HNTB is doing work for Wisconsin DOT identifying those pavements, and their tonal characteristics which tend to cause increased annoyance. They have found conflicting results in the literature.

15.	D. Billera concluded the discussion noting a difference in philosophies in Europe ("prevention") versus the U.S. ("cure")

16.	Roger Wayson noted SAE's active work in the area.

17.	Bill Bowlby called for stronger liaison with SAE, ASTM, ISO & ANSI in part because we need to be educated in their research and standards activities.

18.	Parviz A. Koushki of Kuwait called for more international interaction and focus on land-use compatibility, perhaps through ASCE. Wayson noted that he chaired the ASCE UTP environmental committee and would be willing to be a liaison to this committee for some of their international interests.

19.	D. Billera presented a report from Ron Moulder, our liaison to the coordinating group at Noise Control Engineering. (Contact D. Billera for Report).

20.	Presentations: Thomas Oderbrant of DNV-Ingemansson presented information on Swedish rail noise standards which focus on LAeq,24h, LASmx and percent-annoyed noise descriptors. He also described several noise assessments of rail lines done by his firm. Copies of Mr. Oderbrant transparencies are available from him. (Contact D. Billera for address).

21.	1995 Best Papers Awards went to Panos D. Prevodorous and C.S. Papcosta for "Analysis of Rural Community Perceptions of Helicopter Noise".

22.	The Awards Dinner will be held tonight, rescheduled for Anna Maria restaurant.

23.	D. Billera announced that the Summer Meeting for 1996 will be on July 21-24, 1996, in the Chicago area. Mike Bruns of Illinois DOT is the organizer.

24.	D. Billera noted that the A1FO4 Newsletter will be mailed, March or April, probably by Gregg Fleming.

25.	The Wall Journal's editor El Angove has requested articles and information for publication. D. Billera urged all of us to support the Wall Journal.

26.	D. Billera announced a Vehicle infrastructure Interaction Conference to be held on June 2-7, 1996 in San Diego, CA sponsored by the Engineering Foundation.

27.	The meeting adjourned at 11:45 am

Respectfully submitted for W. Lindeman by W. Bowlby, 1/12/96.