Investigation on characteristics of noise generated by pilling activities

Abstract

Noise, which is inevitable from piling activities, interferes with sleep, speech and cause discomfort and other non-auditory effects. The level of noise due to the piling activity varies with the number of parameters including the type of piling, soil condition, age and types of machineries and driver experience. Objective of this study is to investigate the noise level variation in different piling methods namely, Impact/Hammer piling and Bored Piling, in different soil layer, namely, soft soil layer and hard rock. The sound levels were measured by using a Sound Level Meter (SVAN_971), for the duration of 10 min at 1.5 m above the ground level. For all these two types of piling activities, noise level was above 60 dB(A) during the day time (6.00 am to 6.00 pm). It was found that especially during the hard rock driven the sound level is high, and when releasing the soil from auger (Soil bucket) induced large amount of noise. The maximum noise level in Hammer piling activity is found to be 101.0 dB (83.4 dB(LAeq)), which is significantly larger than that of bored piling activity, 84.8 dB (77.3 dB(LAeq)). The designers can predict the noise levels by using the proposed equations and assess the relative environmental impact of each installation method of piling.