Amusement Park - Roller Coaster

An Amusement Park in Florida planned the addition of a 4500 ft long Roller Coaster in the Eastern edge of the park.  The potential community noise impact was a major consideration from early on in the coaster design process.  Navcon Engineers were asked to incorporate noise mitigation methods to reduce the noise impact from the Roller Coaster into the adjacent community.

Navcon Engineering was contracted to create a three dimensional (3D) analytical model of the coaster noise emission with the objectives:

• predicting the in park and community noise impact
• evaluating various noise mitigation measures.

As a result of that study, the ride layout was greatly altered to minimize the noise impact. Other recommended mitigation measures included:

• the use of soft polyurethane wheels (to reduce mechanical excitation of the rails)
• the filling of the box beams and rails with sand (to increase modal damping)
• It was also suggested that provisions be implemented for the construction of noise barriers along the ride (to shield both screaming and brake noise), if the barriers were determined to be necessary once the ride began operation.

A post installation noise measurement survey was conducted to verify the analytically predicted noise levels.  The data indicated a good correlation between the results from the analytical model and the actually noise level in the community.

 

	Roller Coaster Ride after installation
	Noise Contour Map displaying the averaged noise impact from the roller coaster (i.e., mechanical noise and screaming occupents).

 

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Last modified: December 20, 2006