GHD has developed the quietest Caterpillar 789C haul truck on
record. It was the 2006 winner of Engineers Australia’s Engineering
Excellence Award and has been hailed an engineering and acoustic
attenuation feat.
Our client, WesTrac, needed to meet stringent noise
emissions criteria at the Mt Arthur Coal Mine in New South Wales
and was eager to avoid this impacting on mine productivity.
In response, GHD worked closely with WesTrac and
manufacturers to reduce the sound of the trucks onsite – the source
of a large amount of the noise.
GHD achieved an impressive 20:1 sound reduction on
the Caterpillar 789C haul truck without impacting on the engine’s
cooling performance, vehicle mass or load capacity.
This solution was the result of multi-disciplinary
collaboration involving GHD’s acoustic scientists, mechanical
engineers, structural engineers, finite element analysis
and material technology specialists, as well as use of CadnaA
modelling software.