Annoyance response and improvement of Zwicker's psychoacoustic annoyance model aiming at tonal noises

Abstract

Zwicker’s psychoacoustic annoyance model can be used to estimate the relative degree of noise annoyance. However, this model cannot be well applied to compare the annoyance degrees of tonal noises and atonal noises. In order to improve its estimation effect on tonal noises, 3 groups of noise samples were selected randomly, i.e., 27 low-frequency tonal noise samples induced by a 1000 kV transformer with A-weighted equivalent sound pressure levels ranging from 41.2 dBA to 73.0 dBA; 30 low-, mid-, or high-frequency tonal/atonal noise samples with loudness levels ranging from 60 phon to 80 phon; and 60 other noise samples with A-weighted equivalent sound pressure levels ranging from 40.7 dBA to 75.0 dBA. Laboratory listening tests were conducted on the above 3 sample groups respectively via an 11-point numerical scale. The Zwicker’s psychoacoustic annoyance model was improved by taking tonality into account, and introducing the evaluation result of the first noise sample group (1000 kV transformer noise sampl...