Abstract
Environmental noise from transportation or industrial infrastructure typically has a broad frequency range. Different sources may have disparate acoustical characteristics, which may in turn affect noise annoyance. However, knowledge of the relative contribution of the different acoustical characteristics of broadband noise to annoyance is still scarce. In this study, the subjectively perceived short-term (acute) annoyance reactions to different broadband sounds (namely, realistic outdoor wind turbine and artificial, generic sounds) at 40 dBA were investigated in a controlled laboratory listening experiment. Combined with the factorial design of the experiment, the sounds allowed for separation of the effects of three acoustical characteristics on annoyance, namely, spectral shape, depth of periodic amplitude modulation (AM), and occurrence (or absence) of random AM. Fifty-two participants rated their annoyance with the sounds. Annoyance increased with increasing energy content in the low-frequency range as well as with depth of periodic AM, and was higher in situations with random AM than without. Similar annoyance changes would be evoked by sound pressure level changes of up to 8 dB. The results suggest that besides standard sound pressure level metrics, other acoustical characteristics of (broadband) noise should also be considered in environmental impact assessments, e.g., in the context of wind turbine installations.
Highlights
Large portions of the population are exposed to hazardous environmental noise (e.g., [1,2])
The effect of different acoustical characteristics of outdoor wind turbine (WT) and other, generic broadband sounds on noise annoyance was studied under laboratory conditions
Realistic WT as well as generic broadband sounds with pink and LW spectral shape were presented in a listening experiment, and participants’ annoyance reactions were recorded
Summary
Large portions of the population are exposed to hazardous (technical) environmental noise (e.g., [1,2]). While environmental noise is associated with various health impacts such as sleep disturbance or cardiovascular effects [2], noise annoyance is widespread [3,4]. As the number of exposed people is likely to increase in the future, adequate environmental noise impact assessment becomes increasingly important. Different sources may evoke annoyance reactions of different magnitudes [5,6], which is explainable by their differing acoustical characteristics. Such characteristics comprise (i) sound pressure level, (ii) spectral shape, and (iii) (very) short-term temporal level variations, referred to as amplitude modulation (AM)
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