Experimental verification of differences in subjective annoyance responses using a jury test to compare the noise emissions of straight and curved sections of an urban railway

Abstract

The urban railway, which has both ground-level and underground sections, is a major means of transportation in the city of Seoul. Environmental noise problems have been encountered in residential areas near the railway on ground-level sections. To assess the extent of this problem, many countries have adopted the method of A-weighted equivalent sound pressure level ( LpAeq). However, it may be not reasonable to apply the same evaluation method on all sections of a railway, since the acoustic characteristics of railway noise are highly variable, and its effect on human psychology is complex. Thus, since each person reacts differently to noise, psychological approaches have been utilized to analyze the effects of noise. The aim of this study is to determine an appropriate method for the assessment of railway-generated noise. First, the characteristics of railway-generated noise on straight and curved sections of track were compared by looking at aspects such as the waveforms of the sound pressure and the characteristics of frequency patterns. After that, the subjective annoyance response was analyzed by performing a jury test and a survey in order to understand how people react differently to similar sounds on the two test sections of track.