Exposure to noise at home, at work, while traveling, and during leisure activities is a fact of life for all Americans. At times noise can be loud enough to damage hearing, and at lower levels it can disrupt normal living, affect sleep patterns, affect our ability to concentrate at work, interfere with outdoor recreational activities, and, in some cases, interfere with communications and even cause accidents. Clearly, exposure to excessive noise can affect our quality of life. As the population of the United States and, indeed, the world increases and developing countries become more industrialized, problems of noise are likely to become more pervasive and lower the quality of life for everyone. Efforts to manage noise exposures, to design quieter buildings, products, equipment, and transportation vehicles, and to provide a regulatory environment that facilitates adequate, cost-effective, sustainable noise controls require our immediate attention. Technology for a Quieter America looks at the most commonly identified sources of noise, how they are characterized, and efforts that have been made to reduce noise emissions and experiences. The book also reviews the standards and regulations that govern noise levels and the federal, state, and local agencies that regulate noise for the benefit, safety, and wellness of society at large. In addition, it presents the cost-benefit trade-offs between efforts to mitigate noise and the improvements they achieve, information sources available to the public on the dimensions of noise problems and their mitigation, and the need to educate professionals who can deal with these issues. Noise emissions are an issue in industry, in communities, in buildings, and during leisure activities. As such, Technology for a Quieter America will appeal to a wide range of stakeholders: the engineering community; the public; government at the federal, state, and local levels; private industry; labor unions; and nonprofit organizations. Implementation of the recommendations in Technology for a Quieter America will result in reduction of the noise levels to which Americans are exposed and will improve the ability of American industry to compete in world markets paying increasing attention to the noise emissions of products.

Topics covered include fundamentals of sound, vibration and hearing, elements of a hearing conservation program, noise interference and annoyance, regulations, standards and laws.

This textbook provides a comprehensive and instructive coverage of vehicular traffic flow dynamics and modeling. It makes this fascinating interdisciplinary topic, which to date was only documented in parts by specialized monographs, accessible to a broad readership. Numerous figures and problems with solutions help the reader to quickly understand and practice the presented concepts. This book is targeted at students of physics and traffic engineering and, more generally, also at students and professionals in computer science, mathematics, and interdisciplinary topics. It also offers material for project work in programming and simulation at college and university level. The main part, after presenting different categories of traffic data, is devoted to a mathematical description of the dynamics of traffic flow, covering macroscopic models which describe traffic in terms of density, as well as microscopic many-particle models in which each particle corresponds to a vehicle and its driver. Focus chapters on traffic instabilities and model calibration/validation present these topics in a novel and systematic way. Finally, the theoretical framework is shown at work in selected applications such as traffic-state and travel-time estimation, intelligent transportation systems, traffic operations management, and a detailed physics-based model for fuel consumption and emissions.

This classic and authoritative student textbook contains information that is not over simplified and can be used to solve the real world problems encountered by noise and vibration consultants as well as the more straightforward ones handled by engineers and occupational hygienists in industry. The book covers the fundamentals of acoustics, theoretical concepts and practical application of current noise control technology. It aims to be as comprehensive as possible while still covering important concepts in sufficient detail to engender a deep understanding of the foundations upon which noise control technology is built. Topics which are extensively developed or overhauled from the fourth edition include sound propagation outdoors, amplitude modulation, hearing protection, frequency analysis, muffling devices (including 4-pole analysis and self noise), sound transmission through partitions, finite element analysis, statistical energy analysis and transportation noise. For those who are already well versed in the art and science of noise control, the book will provide an extremely useful reference. A wide range of example problems that are linked to noise control practice are available on www.causalsystems.com for free download.

An excellent learning tool for students and practitioners, this guide to noise control will enable readers to use their knowledge to solve a wide range of industrial noise control problems. Working from basic scientific principles, the author shows how an understanding of sound can be applied to real-world settings, working through several examples in detail and covering good practice in noise control for both new and existing facilities.