Author: C. Tickell
IIR 3rd Annual Dust and Noise Management in Mining 2009, Brisbane, Australia , June 22 - 25, 2009
Abstract
Achieving occupational and environmental noise objectives is a major consideration in the planning stage of resource development and industrial projects. For material handling systems, mobile equipment, process plant and fixed infrastructure, noise emissions all need to be considered at the design stage. However, as many of us know, sometimes very little is done early enough. A preferred approach is to include an item for noise emission in the technical specification, but many times this
is simply given as an occupational noise requirement, such as “not to exceed 85 dB(A) at 1m”, and the environmental objective is not considered until much later. Such a clause may mean an item will not achieve the required environmental noise objectives, or it may cause overly stringent requirements on costs to achieve such levels when they may not be required. Alternatively, there may be a specially-crafted technical specification, but measuring compliance may not be possible.
This paper will discuss the requirements for providing an effective noise specification that ensures the environmental and occupational noise objectives are able to be achieved, and that once installed, compliance can be measured. It discusses planning – when to set the objective, setting the correct objectives for environmental and occupational noise, allowing for measurement tolerance, providing a suitable format for the data that suppliers need to include in their response, and how to measure for compliance. Different stages of a Project require different approaches to planning for noise management, and these are discussed in the presentation.
The major reasons for considering noise early in the project planning stage are:
- To ensure noise objectives are achieved, resulting in a safer workplace and undisturbed
neighbours
- Costs are identified early and included in all stages of budget preparation, avoiding unexpected
costs
- Time to start-up is not impacted by late consideration of noise control requirements or their
installation should objectives not be achieved
The basic components to the achievement of acceptable sound levels are:
- Include the noise sources and their potential impacts into the Project plan from the first phases to
ensure they are considered and included in layouts, engineering, budgets and schedules
- Identify the objectives required to be achieved – environmental and occupational
- Predict the attenuation occurring between the source and the receiver sites for the range of
weather conditions likely (for environmental objectives)
- Calculate the maximum sound power level allowable from the source to achieve the objectives,
include measurement tolerance in that calculation
- Identify expected sound power levels from the proposed source and compare with the calculated
allowable sound power level. Identify the extent of noise reduction required to achieve the
objective
- Identify standard test methods for the type of source and their requirements
- Seek information on similar sources to that proposed from suppliers or other operators. Allow
time to obtain this information and potentially visit similar operations
- Prepare a technical specification for the item, including measurement tolerance, and test
methods proposed to demonstrate compliance
