Noise By Welding Generators In Construction Site

By
Sellappan Elancheliyan

HSE Manager, Technical Sources, Marafiq IWPP Project, ACT Building, First Floor,
Madeena Street, P.B.No: 35455, Jubail Industrial City - 31961, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Email: elankanipaper@gmail.com Mob: 00966 553204797

Abstract
Noise and vibration can be the cause of serious disturbance and inconvenience to
anyone exposed to it and in certain circumstances noise and vibration can be a serious
hazard to health, causing permanent damage to hearing. Noise exposure levels of
construction workers are difficult to determine due to the day to-day variation in occupation
and shift length of each worker and the itinerant and seasonal nature of the job.
Nevertheless, it is clear that the construction worker is exposed to very high sound levels
for considerable lengths of time.
Different types and sizes of equipments, machineries and tools were used by
construction industries. Welding generators is very important one among the equipment
used in the construction industries, used in huge numbers and as clusters and also located
very near to the work area. The noise level produced by these welding machines is much
higher than the permissible limit. But the construction work group took very little effort to
avoid or minimize this noise level to permissible level. Many people even though they may
not need electricity for their work got in and exposed in this zone of danger. In this site
hundreds of welding generators have been used by various working groups. This paper
assesses the potential noise impacts associated with welding generators used in construction
activities of the Hyundai-Marafiq IWPP project and the effective steps to control this noise.

Keywords: Construction workers, decibel, noise exposure, welding generators, noise

effects, noise control

1.0. Introduction

Noise: "any loud, discordant or
disagreeable sound." Noise intensity is
measured in decibel units. The decibel
scale is logarithmic; each 10-decibel
increase represents a tenfold increase
in noise intensity. Human perception
of loudness also conforms to a
logarithmic scale; a 10-decibel
increase is perceived as roughly a
doubling of loudness. Thus, 30
decibels is 10 times more intense than
20 decibels and sounds twice as loud;
40 decibels is 100 times more intense than
20 and sounds 4 times as loud; 80 decibels is
1 million times more intense than 20 and
sounds 64 times as loud. Noise can cause
hearing loss, lack of sleep, irritability,
heartburn, indigestion, ulcers, high blood
pressure, and possibly heart disease.
Prolonged or frequent exposure to noise
tends to make the physiological disturbances
chronic. In addition, noise-induced stress
creates severe tension in daily living and
contributes to mental illness.
2.0. Noise Exposure level level, Leq, which normalizes the Leq to an 8
2.1. Permissible noise exposure levels hour day. This could only be accomplished
given a workers pattern of exposure to
Sound Level Permitted duration noise; workers switch to different
(dBA) per workday
jobs/tools/sites, and their shift length is
(hrs)
90 8.00 variable and seasonal. Exposure to different
91 6.96 levels for various periods of time shall be
92 6.06 computed according to the formula
93 5.28 Leq = (T1 / L1) + (T2 / L2) + ............ + (Tn / Ln)
94 4.60
where:
95 4.00
96 3.48 Leq = The equivalent noise exposure factor.
97 3.03
98 2.63 T = The actual time of noise exposure by
person at a constant noise level.
99 2.30
100 2.00 L = The duration of the permissible noise
101 1.73 exposure at the constant level (from
Table.1).
102 1.52
103 1.32 If the value of Leq exceeds unity (1) the
104 1.15 exposure exceeds permissible levels.
105 1.00
2.3. Noise Level in construction Jobs
106 0.86 In early construction stages, we found a
107 0.76 large variety of hand tools and other
108 0.66 machinery contributing to a background
109 0.56 level which is usually above 80 dBA, which
is given in table.2 and table.3.
110 0.50
111 0.43 Noise(Leq ),
112 0.38 Plant/Equipment
dBA
113 0.33 Dozers, Dumpers 89-103
114 0.28 Front end loaders 85-91
115 0.25 Excavators 86-90
Backhoes 79-89
Table.1 Permissible Noise Exposures Scrapers 84-102
Mobile Cranes 97-102
When the daily noise exposure is Compressors 62-92
composed of two or more periods of Pavers 100-102
noise exposure of different levels, their Rollers (compactors) 79-93
combined effect should be considered, Bar Benders 94-96
rather than the individual effect of Pneumatic breakers 94-111
each. Hydraulic breakers 90-100
Piledrivers (diesel) 82-105
2.2. Equivalent noise exposure factor
Table.2.Noise from construction equipments
Noise levels are expressed in terms of
the energy-equivalent continuous noise
Trade/Tools Leq, dBA 3.1. Noise by Welding Generators
Plumber 90
The workers involved in various works has
Elevator installer 96 exposed to various levels of noise by the
Rebar worker 95 machinery which they works. Apart from
Carpenter 90 the noise by individual tool, the tools need
Concrete form electricity to work. In construction industries
93
finisher all the required electricity is supplied by the
Steel stud installer 96 portable generators, which also producing
Labourers shovel huge noise, the workers ultimately exposed
94
hardcore to double effect.
Labourers concrete
97
pour
4.0. Experimental Work
Hoist operator 100
The usual sound sources of an electrical
Pneumatic
108 welding generator are fan, bearing and
chipper/chisel
Compactor 109 sound radiation from the surface. In an
electric generator the magnetic field
Electric drill 102
produces the circumferential forces required
Air track drill 113
for the energy transfer. In addition, the field
Table.3.Noise from construction tools creates radial forces. These forces interact
with stator is in contact with the frame,
which also is excited. The vibration of the
3.0. Welding Generators frame accelerates the surrounding air, which
Welding Generators are essential for is heard as noise. To avoid excessive noise
use on construction sites where the designer of the generators needs
electricity is not supplied. Welding calculate the vibration and noise levels.
Sets are portable and operational in In this work the noise emission of an electric
moments, and generators can also be generator used for welding operations were
used to power other appliances and studied.
equipment. The experimental readings were taken from
the noise of a standard diesel welding
There are typically two types of users generator with 3KVA, 1750 rpm and 220V
requiring welding sets, those who are output. The noise generated by single
occasional users who should choose a welding generator, two generators and three
set that welds using alternating current generators with 1 m distance between them
and those that demand intensive use, are observed for study. All other activities in
who should choose a welding set that this area were stopped in order to eliminate
outputs direct current, enabling the the noise effect of other work activities. The
welding of all types of electrodes and noise level was observed in a calibrated
on highly technical equipment. standard sound level meter and noted from
various distances. The table.4 shows the
noise level observations.
Distance Noise Level, dBA
from the Single WG* Two WG (1m distance b/w) Three WG (1m distance b/w)
welding
generator Min Max Average Min Max Average Min Max Average
(m)
0.5 95.2 98.8 97 99.9 100.4 100.15 103.9 105.1 104.5
1.0 95.1 96.5 95.8 99.4 99.8 99.6 103.2 104.7 103.95
1.5 93.1 93.5 93.3 98.1 97.7 97.9 102.9 103.6 103.25
2.0 90.4 91.7 91.05 95.4 95.9 95.65 99.6 100.6 100.1
2.5 90.2 90.8 90.5 93.5 94.5 94.0 99.2 100.3 99.75
3.0 88.8 89.7 89.25 91.5 92.8 92.15 97.3 99.4 98.35
3.5 88.5 89.1 88.8 90.3 91.9 91.1 96.5 98.4 97.45
4.0 87.3 88.9 88.1 89.5 90.7 90.1 94.7 95.9 95.3
4.5 86.5 88.9 87.7 88.3 89.6 88.95 93.8 94.7 94.25
5.0 85.7 88.4 87.05 87.9 89.1 88.5 92.8 93.9 93.35
5.5 84.6 87.4 86.0 87.2 89.0 88.1 91.7 93.2 92.45
6.0 84.3 86.5 85.4 85.9 87.7 86.8 90.9 92.0 91.45
6.5 84.1 86.4 85.25 84.8 86.8 85.8 90.2 91.8 91.0
7.0 83.9 85.8 84.85 84.6 86.4 85.5 89.5 91.4 90.45
7.5 83.8 85.6 84.7 84.4 86.1 85.25 89.1 90.9 90.0
8.0 83.7 85.5 84.6 84.2 86.0 85.1 88.6 90.0 89.3
8.5 82.0 82.6 82.95 82.7 83.3 83.0 88.2 89.7 88.95
9.0 81.9 82.8 82.55 82.5 83.0 82.75 87.7 89.4 88.55
9.5 80.1 81.4 80.75 81.5 82.8 82.15 87.3 89.0 88.15
10 80.0 81.3 80.65 81.1 82.3 81.7 86.3 88.7 87.5
15 - - - - - - 85.1 85.3 85.2
* Welding Generator
Table.4. Noise level in dBA from welding generators

5.0. Result and Discussion

Based on the noise level observed from
the welding generators, the noise level
is higher than the permissible level, at
0.5 m from the WG, the values noted
are 97 dBA, 100.15 dBA and 104.5
dBA for single, double and Triple
welding generators respectively. These
values decreases with increase in
distance and it reaches the permissible
level of 90 dBA at 2.5m for single, 4 m
for two and 7.5m for three generators.
Even though the permissible level is 90
dBA; hearing damage begins at a much
lower level, about 85 decibels. This
value is observed at 6.75m, 8.1m and
16m for Single, double and triple
generators respectively. The effect of
distance on noise is given in Figure.1
 110 Distance vs Noise level
105 Single WG
Two WG
100
Noise Level (dBA)
Three WG
95

90

85

80

75
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Distance(m)

Fig.1. Effect of distance on noise level from welding generators

6.0. Conclusion 7.0. References

Noise by welding generators can be controlled 1. Eaton S., Noise & Vibration in Work
by an increase in distance between the WG and safe Industries, WCB of BC
the listener or to introduce noise reduction Engineering Report WCB-99006, March
1999
screens.
In this site welding generators were provided 2. Anon., Exposure of Construction
with barrication by warning tapes at around Workers to Noise, Construction
0.75m to 1 m. The workers are working without Industry Research and Information
any ear protection at a distance of about 1m Association, UK, 1984
from the welding generator and are exposed to a 3. Bares L.F., Salyers E.F., A New
minimum noise of 95.8dBA. But study shows Material Systems Approach for
the permissible level of noise (90 dBA) is Controlling Heavy Equipment Operator
reached at 2.5m for single WG, 4m for two WG Noise Exposure, Inter noise 80, 495-498,
and 7.5m for three WG. So a hard barricading is 1980
needed at a minimum distance of 2.5m and this 4. Suggs C.W. Noise Problems of Hand
distance is further increased based on the and Power Tools, Noise-con 81, 339-
number of WG used in one location, which 342, 1981
provides protection and minimizes the workers
exposure in noisy zone. 5. Singh, P.: Noise pollution. Every
Mans Science. 25(1&2):231-35 (1984).
Also during both construction and operation,
maintain all equipment noise control equipment 8.0. Acknowledgement
in good working order in accordance with Mr.Shaji Jose Mangalathu, CEO &
manufacturers specifications, post warning Mr.Jamshed Akhtar, Sr.Project Manager,
signs in high noise areas and implement hearing Technical Sources,
protection program for work areas where noise Jubail Industrial City- 31961.
levels exceed 85 dBA. Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.