Prediction of environmental sound pressure levels from wind farms : A simple but accurate model.

Abstract

The prediction of the environmental sound pressure levels of wind farms does not yet have a global consensus on how to achieve an easy-to-build model with accurate results. This chapter aims to present the sound pressure level prediction model developed at Universidad de la República (Uruguay). Its main characteristics are: taking into account atmospheric stability to determine the acoustic power of the machines; describing the generation of noise along the blades due to turbulent phenomena; and calculating the noise propagation at different distances from the tower taking into account atmospheric absorption, turbulence energy dissipation, and geometric divergence. It does not have any special IT requirements. A new approach to calculating geometric divergence is considered. The results show more than 80% of the cases within the range of ±3 dB, for wind farms throughout our country. The need to use not only A-weighted sound pressure levels but also octave frequency band levels is indicated.