Effect of building façade on indoor transportation noise annoyance in terms of frequency spectrum and expectation for sound insulation

Abstract

This study explored the effect of building façade on indoor transportation noise annoyance in terms of frequency spectrum and expectation for sound insulation. The stimuli for transportation noise (road, rail, and aircraft noise) consisted of the original sound recorded outdoors, and the indoor sounds involved sounds filtered by filters using frequency responses of the insulation of the façades. The first experiment, which was conducted to reveal the effect of the frequency spectrum, compared the relative annoyance due to indoor noise and outdoor noise, both presented at 45 and 65 dB (LAeq). The results showed that in most cases, the indoor noise with lower sound energy in the high-frequency range produced lower annoyance than the outdoor noise for equal sound levels. In the second experiment, the participants were asked to rate the annoyance due to transportation noises presented at sound levels ranging from 35 to 75 dB (LAeq) in a specific imagined hearing situation (indoors or outdoors). Contrary to the first experiment, the results showed that in most cases, the annoyance due to indoor noise in an imagined indoor hearing situation, where sound insulation of the façade is expected, was higher than that due to outdoor noise in an imagined outdoor hearing situation for equivalent sound levels. The results of the two laboratory experiments demonstrate that the building façade has influences on the indoor transportation noise annoyance due to the frequency spectrum and the expectation for sound insulation.