Predicting the sound power and impact of a wastewater treatment plant

Several process units at a wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) can produce a significant level of sound and thus induce sound nuisance for nearby reside nts. The risk for sound nuisance should be considered by making a prognosis of sound impact in an early project phase (planning, design). A prognosis requires information with respect to the sound characteristics of the diffe rent process units. This paper reports the development of empirical models for the sound power of relevant process units in the water line at Aquafin WWTPs. The used methodology for model derivation and validation allowed us to minimize the required number of measurements. Besides the methodology, t he paper describes in detail the derivation and validation of the empirical model for the splashing water of screw pumps. Also the use of all the deri ved empirical models to determine the sound impact of a wastewater treatmen t plant at close distance is illustrated with a case-study.