Evaluation of the attenuation mechanism of the noise reduction performance of polyurethane porous elastic road surface

The polyurethane porous elastic road surface (PERS) demonstrates superior noise reduction performance, primarily due to its porous structure that facilitates effective sound absorption and its high elasticity that contributes to substantial vibration attenuation. However, it is susceptible to void clogging and long-term aging during service, leading to a gradual decline in noise reduction performance. To investigate the attenuation characteristics of noise reduction performance in PERS mixtures under void clogging and long-term aging conditions, this study investigated PERS mixtures subjected to various clogging cycles and aging times. Concurrently, the tire vertical drop test and standing wave tube absorption coefficient test were employed to analyze the variation rule in the noise sound pressure level (SPL) and sound absorption coefficient frequency curves under the above conditions. The results show that the noise reduction performance of the PERS mixture exhibits a variation rule of first decreasing and then increasing with the increase of the clogging cycles, and the required clogging amount to reach the void saturation state is 30–40 g. Compared to before clogging, the PERS mixture after clogging has an enhanced ability to absorb low-frequency noise and a weakened ability to absorb high-frequency noise; the sizes of the cloggings have a higher degree of attenuation in low-frequency sound absorption than in high-frequency. As long-term aging progresses, the noise reduction performance of the PERS mixture first increases and then decreases. Notably, long-term aging predominantly impacts the high-frequency noise reduction capabilities of the PERS mixture. The impact of void clogging on the noise reduction performance of PERS mixtures is found to be more pronounced than that of long-term aging. • Evaluated the noise attenuation performance of PERS in void clogging and long-term aging. • The variation rule caused by void clogging and long-term aging is the opposite. • PERS has different abilities to absorb high and low-frequency noise before and after clogging. • Void clogging has a more significant impact on the noise reduction performance of PERS.