Speaker: Julien MAILLARD, R&D Engineer at CSTB (The Scientific and Technical Center for Building)
Wednesday 7th October 12-1pm UK time online only via this link.
Abstract
Urban soundscape auralization has emerged as a valuable tool for complementing traditional noise indicators with perceptual evaluations. By enabling stakeholders to listen to simulated future scenarios, auralisation allows the acoustic impact of urban planning to be assessed before implementation. Advances in modelling and rendering techniques now make it possible to reproduce road traffic noise and other common urban sound sources with a high degree of realism and fidelity. This presentation provides an overview of the auralisation techniques developed at CSTB, with a particular emphasis on the simulation of non-stationary road traffic noise in urban environments. Coupled with a dynamic traffic model that represents individual vehicles, the framework enables the realistic auralisation of complex traffic situations. The various components of the framework and their interactions will be described, including the synthesis of engine and tyre noise, the modelling of propagation effects between moving sources and listener, and the spatial rendering of 3D sound scenes. The presentation will conclude with recent research on modelling and reproducing the perceptual effects of atmospheric turbulence in outdoor environments involving long-range sound propagation, thereby extending auralisation capabilities to scenarios in which meteorological conditions significantly influence sound perception.
Speaker Biography
Julien Maillard, PhD, is a Research and Expertise Engineer at the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment (CSTB, France). His research interests include outdoor sound propagation, auralisation of indoor and outdoor sound environments, and active control of noise and vibration.
Before joining CSTB in 1999, he conducted doctoral and postdoctoral research at Virginia Tech (USA) and in Sweden. Throughout his career, he has contributed to numerous national and international research projects in environmental acoustics, auralization, and active noise control.
He is responsible for the development of the core computational engine of the environmental noise mapping platform MithraSIG and the urban soundscape prediction and auralisation tool MithraSound. In addition to his research activities, he conducts expert studies in environmental, urban, and transportation acoustics.
His recent collaborations have involved a range of public and industrial partners, including Bordeaux Métropole, the City of Paris, SNCF, Engie Green, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces, Safran Aircraft Engines, and the International Union of Railways (UIC).