AUDITORY EVALUATION OF SOUND SIGNALS RADIATED BY A VIBRATING SURFACE

Abstract

This paper presents a combination of vibroacoustic and psychoacoustic studies of sounds radiated by a vibrating structure. The calculated sound field is the sound pressure radiated by a baffled thin-plate structure immersed in a fluid, on the surface of which the acceleration is given. Various configurations are selected for the time and space functions of the acceleration variable, each configuration leading to a particular acoustic signal (a low-frequency tone complex in our case). These signals are then transformed into sound files, which are used as test signals in psychoacoustic experiments for assessing their perceptual attributes and quality. Two experiments were run. In the first one, the unpleasantness of a series of signals at different levels was measured by direct estimation and compared with their calculated loudness and sharpness using Zwicker's model. The same measurements were repeated with the signals set to the same maximum amplitude. In the second experiment, the pleasantness of another series of sounds at equal loudness was measured, as well as dissimilarity and preference on pairs of these sounds. An MDS analysis was run to extract auditory attributes that could account for the perceived differences between sounds and correlate with the estimated pleasantness. The results from the first experiment show that pleasantness is always highly (and negatively) correlated with loudness. The same holds for sharpness, when sounds are played at the same maximum amplitude. The second experiment shows that the perceptual attributes revealed by the MDS analysis are related to pitch and timbre, the latter being highly correlated with pleasantness. Overall, this study confirms the interest of extending vibroacoustic studies to a more complete “psychomechanical” investigation of the whole process of sound generation. It is suggested that such investigations may apply to product sound quality and to active or passive noise control, by providing psychoacoustic feedback to the design of the vibrating structures or of the noise-control systems.