Introduction

Blue Rhine General Trading LLC, along with Eastern international LLC, has secured the contract from ENOC for installing SABIC Innovative Plastics to build sound walls for their Fuel Station located at Dubai Hills.

The new solar-powered fuel station of ENOC, located at Dubai Hills, was built as per global retail standards and are compliant with Dubai Municipality Green Building Regulations. According to the environmental noise criteria, any industrial premises or any mechanical equipment shall ensure that the emission of noise does not exceed a reasonable level, to protect the general public from excessive noise levels.

Challenge

A: To achieve maximum noise reduction by creating sound walls for our client ENOC’s fuel station located at Dubai Hills.

B: To find a suitable noise absorbing material around the fenced area to reduce reverberation. The material required for building the sound walls ought to have good properties in flammability performance, impact resistance, stiffness, strength, and ease of processing.

Scope of Work

To build sound walls for creating an effective sound barrier on the fence walls of the ENOC fuel station located at Dubai Hills.

Since the ENOC project is located at the Dubai Hills neighbourhood, the establishment must ensure that the noise level measured at the fence line should not exceed 70 dBA. The material chosen to reduce the sound was SABIC LEXAN EXELL™ D polycarbonate sheets.

Process

Phase 1:

Blue Rhine and Eastern international have jointly presented LEXAN Speciality sheets as a solution for reducing noise to the client, ENOC. We have engineered a complete system to create the best possible environment with calculations successfully predicting to overcome noise level requirements, ensuring greater comfort for the residents in the Dubai Hills neighbourhood.

Phase 2:

Our experts have used different variants of SABIC LEXAN brand polycarbonate sheets for testing by placing them into a slotted steel “U” Aluminium profile on top of the fence walls. We have conducted a noise measurement implementation to measure the authenticity of the calculation results. The Sound created by a hand crank siren was measured by 2 calibrated handheld decibel meters on either side of the barrier.

We have carried out four tests using varying combinations of LEXAN sheets at the site. The sheets used for testing include THERMOCLEAR™ Multiwall 16mm, EXELL™ D 6mm, 2-layer EXELL™ D 6mm and EXELL™ D 8mm. Two readings were noted per combination and an average of the reading was considered as the final finding. The reduction in dB with LEXAN showed variations when compared to manufacturer datasheets, which was attributed to the mock test conditions. By taking all these readings into account, our client ENOC has finalized the single layer 8mm EXELL™ D polycarbonate sheets for the project.

Phase 3:

We have closely observed the reduction in dB since it was the major criterion for choosing the material.  The highest reduction of noise was noted in EXELL™ D 8mm, resulting in an overall noise reduction up to 33 dB. The lowest reduction of noise was noted in THERMOCLEAR™ sheet 16mm, leading to an overall reduction of 25.15dB. Considering all these readings, ENOC confirmed 8mm opal EXELL™ D sheets as the final product to be used for the sound barrier at 1076 Dubai Hills site.

Outcome

We have successfully created a sound barrier on the fence walls of ENOC fuel Station located at Dubai Hills by building highly effective sound walls using SABIC LEXAN EXELL™ D polycarbonate sheets.

Conclusion

Industry experts from both the parties have tested these sound walls and approved the fact that we have succeeded in reducing the noise levels and have achieved up to 33 dB noise reduction, ensuring greater comfort in terms of noise pollution for residents in the Dubai Hills neighbourhood.