Corn plants as temporary acoustic barrier to limit the effects of noise pollution

Corn is a cereal imported into Europe from the Americas. It is used for human and animal feed, but there are also industrial uses such as the production of ethanol, of fuel for heating homes, or the production of starch. Corn grows in the summer in areas where there is water. It is grown in many regions of the world and its production exceeds that of any other cereal in quantity. The corn plant can reach up to three meters in height, with a stem diameter of a few centimeters and with dense leaves longer than 30 cm and 10 cm wide. There are noisy activities where it is necessary to attenuate the noise produced to limit the effects of noise pollution. Some activities use temporary barriers depending on the processing cycle adopted. If noisy work is carried out during the summer season, corn rows of adequate width can be used as an acoustic barrier. In this paper, the possibility of using corn plants as an acoustic barrier is investigated. Acoustic measurements of the noise attenuation of corn rows of adequate width are described. Using a semi-spherical source placed on the ground, the acoustic attenuation due to the corn plants arranged in several rows for different distances from the sound source to the receiver was measured.