Poroelastic Low Noise Road Surfaces

Noise is one of the most important problems related to road traffic. During the last decades, noise emitted by engine and powertrain of vehicles was greatly reduced and tyres became a clearly dominant noise source. The paper describes the concept of low noise poroelastic road surfaces that are composed with mineral and rubber aggregate bound by polyurethane resin. Those surfaces have a porous structure and are much more flexible than standard asphalt or cement concrete pavements due to high contains of rubber aggregate and the elastic binder. Measurements performed within the PERSUADE project in several European countries indicate that such surfaces decrease tyre/road noise between 8 and 10 dB in relation to reference surfaces such as dense asphalt concrete or Stone Matrix Asphalt. Furthermore, poroelastic road surfaces ascertain rolling resistance of car tyres which is comparable to classic pavements. One of the unforeseen properties of the poroelastic road surfaces is their ability to decrease the risks related to car fires with fuel spills. The paper presents road and laboratory results of noise, rolling resistance, and fire tests performed on a few types of poroelastic road surfaces.