  Sonic crystal acoustic screens have been in progressive research and
development in the last two decades as a technical solution for mitigating
traffic noise. Their behaviour is quite different from that observed in
classical barriers, with the latter being based on physically blocking the
direct sound propagation path (only allowing diffracted noise to reach sensible
receivers), and sonic crystals providing attenuation efficiency based on the
creation of band-gaps at specific frequency ranges, due to the Bragg's
interference phenomenon. The distinct physical mechanisms of these two types of
noise barriers complicates the use of classical simplified or even numerical
models developed for traditional barriers to simulate and predict the
attenuation performance of a sonic crystal, and alternative methods become thus
required. In the acoustics scientific literature, several authors have proposed
estimation and simulation methods based on different numerical tools to predict
the sound insulation provided by these new noise abatement solutions. This
paper presents a comparative evaluation of some of these methods, with emphasis
to the assessment of their accuracy versus memory usage in order to determine
which one is the most suitable for optimization methodologies in the design of
new devices with improved acoustic performance.
