Noise control by barriers—Part 2: Noise reduction by an absorptive barrier

This paper presents a method of estimating the excess attenuation of a noise by an absorptive barrier covered with sound-absorbing materials. The approximate theory of diffraction by the absorptive barrier is derived from rigorous theory for a hard barrier. A single chart, which may be very convenient for the rapid estimation of the effect of absorption (the increase of the excess attenuation caused by the absorbing treatment of the barrier) in the practice of noise control, is presented. The validity of the method developed in this paper is confirmed by comparing estimated with measured values.