Tennis - Point-of-Serve

The noise by tennis, padel and pickleball courts, especially when multiple courts are operated simultaneously, consists of a sequence of short impulses resulting from the impact of the balls, causing an increased annoyance.

Note

In the German legislation, the assessment of noise caused by sports facilities is characterized by the A-weighted maximum level L_AFT during a time interval of 5 seconds. This maximum level for each interval of 5 seconds corresponds with the maximum level applying the time weighting „FAST“ 18BImSchV-1991.

This approach is intended to capture the increased annoyance potential of closely spaced impulsive events (such as repeated ball impacts), consistent with the general ISO 1996 concept of accounting for impulsive noise.

Tennis Source

The tennis source in CadnaA is a point source for which the emission is not entered, but set automatically for each emission type 3770-02 Pro-2025. For the calculation of propagation the selected industrial standard/guideline is used. With ISO 9613-2 it shall be noted that the non-spectral ground attenuation has to be selected (see ISO 9613 (1996), Ground Attenuation). In this case, the ground reflection is considered automatically by the directivity index K0 or DΩ resp. based on the source height above ground (corresponding to K0=3 dB as stated in VDI 3770 3770-02).

Note

Since the emission of the tennis source refers specifically to the assessment procedure established by the German legislation, it has to be decided whether this type of source is applicable in other countries and in a different legal context.

Type

Using this setting, the emmission type of the source can be set. Three options are available: "Tennis – Point of Serve", "Padel - Center of Court" and "Pickleball – Center of Court". Depending on the selection, the corresponding emission characteristics are automatically applied.

Source in Steady-State / Operating Time

By default, the option „Source in Steady-State“ is selected where no correction for operating time applies. In this case, the specified noise emission is constant for each entire daily period (see chapter 6.2.4).

Dialog Tennis - Point-of-Serve, with option „Source in Steady-State“

By selecting the option „Operating Time“, the source-specific operating time in minutes can be entered for each daily period „Day|Recreation (=Evening)|Night“. The correction for operating time result from the operating times and the reference time intervals D|E|N specified in the configuration of calculation (see Reference Time Tab).

Dialog Tennis - Point-of-Serve, with option „Source in Steady-State“

Addressing Diurnal Patterns

Furthermore, diurnal patterns (= hourly emission profile covering 24 hours) can be used for the tennis source in CadnaA. To this end, first define a diurnal pattern with the application type „Industry“ in the local or the global library „Diurnal Patterns“ (see Diurnal Patterns). Subsequently, this diurnal pattern can be selected from the list box.

Evaluation

This source type is based on the tact maximum level method using A-weighted maximum levels L_AFT in 5-s intervals (time weighting “FAST”). This approach is intended to reflect the increased annoyance caused by impulsive events such as repeated ball impacts. The corresponding receiver levels are calculated from these source characteristics.

Limit values, assessment periods (day/evening/night), and any additional corrections (e.g., operating times or sensitive hours) depend on the applicable national or local regulations. Therefore, the calculated levels must be interpreted and assessed according to the legal framework of the respective country.

If play occurs only during part of a period, the operating time (or alternatively an hourly diurnal pattern) can be used to represent time-dependent operation.

Example Tennis

It is useful to name the courts and the points of serve properly (and the ID).

Geometry Tennis

Per default, the source height is 2 m above ground (according to VDI guideline 3770 3770-02).

The points of serve are entered on the middle of the base line of a tennis court.

Note

When modeling playing doubles in tennis, not twice as many points-of-serve are entered, as the number of events does not depend on the type of game.

Example: Pickleball

To uniquely identify a pickleball court, it has proven effective to use a string that clearly describes the specific court. For the assessment of a pickleball court, the type “Pickleball – Center of Court” should be selected.

Geometry: Pickleball

To analyze the noise generated on an active pickleball court, a sound source should be placed at the center of the court at a height of 1.5 meters above ground level Pro-2025.
The position of the source remains the same regardless of the game mode. It should be selected identically for both singles and doubles play.

Example: Padel

For the unambiguous identification of a padel court, it has proven useful to use a character string that uniquely describes the respective court. For the assessment of a padel court, the type “Padel – Center of Court” should be selected.

Geometry: Padel

To analyze the noise emission from a padel court in use, the emission location is assumed at the center of the court, the source height is 2.0 m. The padel-court-specific rebound walls must be taken into account in the calculation model as screens, each with its actual height.

Emission within a single sport

According to the sports-noise study Pro-1994 and VDI 3770, the emissions of individual courts or typical striking positions are not represented by a single, uniform sound power level. Instead, each source is assigned an immission-relevant sound power level that is derived from its individual contribution to the immission level at the receiver under consideration.

For this purpose, the sources are first ranked for each receiver according to their expected contribution to the immission level. Sources with a larger contribution are given higher priority than less relevant sources. As a result, the assignment of sound power levels depends on the receiver. When using predefined source types (e.g., Tennis – Point of Serve), this ranking and assignment is performed automatically.

Because the assessment is based on the maximum level (5s tact maximum) method rather than the energy-equivalent continuous sound level, this emission model deliberately differs from the common assumption of identical sound power levels for sources of the same kind. Instead, it accounts for the fact that not all courts or striking positions are equally and simultaneously relevant at the receiver.

The values in the following tables represent rank-dependent sound power levels for the sources, where n = 1 denotes the source with the highest contribution at the considered receiver (according to the maximum level contribution of the precalculation), n = 2 the second-highest contribution, and so on. The levels decrease with increasing rank because less relevant (more distant or better shielded) sources contribute less to the receiver level. The ranking is performed separately for each receiver.

For facilities used exclusively for a single sport, the following sound power levels are assigned to the sources depending on their immission relevance:

Note

The calculation is performed in accordance with the industry guideline selected in CadnaA.

Tennis (single-sport operation):

n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
PWL_n	89.8	88.2	86.7	85.1	83.6	82.0	80.5	78.9	77.4	75.8

Pickleball (single-sport operation):

n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
PWL_n	99.5	96.5	93.5	90.5	87.4	84.4	81.4	78.4	75.4	72.4

Padel (single-sport operation):

n	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
PWL_n	97.0	94.0	91.0	88.0	85.0	82.0	79.0	76.0	73.0	70.0

Note

When using the tennis source (with the selected sport type), the preliminary calculation, source ranking, and assignment of immission-relevant sound power levels are performed automatically.

Example: Tennis courts only

The following example shows 8 tennis courts with 16 points-of-serve. In the calculation, just the 10 sources closest to the receiver contribute. The emission from more distant sources is irrelevant at this receiver.

Example

Path: Examples\\Sources\Tennis\tennis.cna

By replacing these 10 tennis sources by point sources and addressing the distance-dependent sound power levels as from the table, would result in the same receiver level.

Emissions in mixed operation

In mixed operation of several sports (e.g., tennis, pickleball, and padel), the assignment of sound power levels to the individual sources is based on a common ranking according to immission relevance. In a preliminary calculation, the sources of all sports are first assessed—using the sound power levels L_WAmax,i—with regard to their contribution to the immission level at the respective receiver and are sorted accordingly.

Subsequently, depending on the sport and the occupied time shares k, the sources are assigned the corresponding corrected, sport-specific sound power levels L_WAFTeq,n. On this basis, the actual prediction calculation of the immission levels is performed.

The procedure is independent of whether singles or doubles matches are played. The same applies to grid calculations: the sorting of the sources and the assignment of the immission-relevant sound power levels are carried out accordingly for each grid point.

Emission parameters for the individual sports:

Sport	i	Sources per court	L_WAmax,i ball impact	k_i	Position	Source
Tennis	1	2	95	0.3	Baseline centers	Pro-2025
Padel	2	1	100	0.5	Center of Court	DataKustik measurement (2025)
Pickleball	3	1	102.5	0.5	Center of Court	Pro-2025

Example: Mixed tennis and padel

In this example, the procedure is described using standard point sources. The predefined tennis source type (with the selected sport settings) performs the steps described below automatically.

Description: For a facility with six courts consisting of four tennis courts (T1–T4) and two padel courts (PAD1–PAD2) as shown in figure, the assessment level at receiver R1 is calculated. The objective is to check whether unrestricted play is permissible.

Step 1: Definition of sport-specific source positions (2 sources per tennis court: baseline centers; 1 source per padel court: court center).

Step 2: For the preliminary calculation, sport-specific maximum sound power levels L_WA,max,i are assigned to the sources. Based on these values, a propagation calculation is performed and the level contribution of each source at the receiver is determined. The sources are then sorted in descending order of level contribution (highest contribution first). The resulting order is shown in the table in Step 3 (columns 1–3).

Step 3: Assignment of effective time shares and derivation of the corrected emission values L_WAFTeq,n. The sources sorted by level contribution are first assigned a sport- or source-type-specific base time share k_1,n. The effective time shares k_n are then determined step by step, taking into account the remaining residual time. With s₀ = 0, the following applies:

\(k_n = k_{1,n}(1-s_{n-1})\)

\(s_n = s_{n-1}+k_n\)

s_n describes the cumulative time share of the sources considered up to rank n, with s_n ≤ 1. A remaining share of 1 − s_n corresponds to the unused portion of time within the assessment period. The level correction is derived from the effective time share.

\(\Delta L_n = 10 \log_{10}\left(k_n\right)\)

Thus, the time-share-corrected emission value is:

\(L_{\mathrm{WAFTeq},n} = L_{\mathrm{WA},\max,n} + \Delta L_n\)

Using L_WAFTeq,n, the individual contributions at the receiver L_AFTeq,n are calculated and energetically summed to obtain the equivalent maximum level (from 5-s intervals) L_AFTeq (maximum-level method).

No.	Source	maximum level contribution (precalculation)	k₁	s_n	k_n	ΔL_n [dB]	L_WA,max [dB]	L_WAFTeq,n [dB]	L_AFTeq,n [dB]
1	T1S2	50.3	0.3	0.300	0.300	-5.2	95	89.8	45.1
2	T3S1	50.1	0.3	0.510	0.210	-6.8	95	88.2	43.3
3	PAD2	49.9	0.5	0.755	0.245	-6.1	100	93.9	43.8
4	T1S1	49.3	0.3	0.829	0.074	-11.3	95	83.7	38.0
5	T3S2	48.5	0.3	0.880	0.051	-12.9	95	82.1	35.6
6	T2S2	47.7	0.3	0.916	0.036	-14.4	95	80.6	33.3
7	T4S1	47.5	0.3	0.941	0.025	-16.0	95	79.0	31.5
8	PAD1	47.3	0.5	0.971	0.029	-15.3	100	84.7	32.0
9	T2S1	47.0	0.3	0.979	0.009	-20.5	95	74.5	26.5
10	T4S2	46.5	0.3	0.986	0.006	-22.1	95	72.9	24.4
L_AFTeq :									49.7

Calculation protocol for tennis source

Note that the calculation protocol (see Calculation Protocol) for the tennis source shows the resulting levels for each hour 0-23 h, although diurnal patterns are not available for the tennis source. This has software-internal reasons, since for the calculation of the loudest hourly level (L1hMaxD/E/N, see Evaluation Parameters Tab) the emission has to bet set internally to hourly data even for sources having a constant emission or for the time periods D/E/N only.