Predicting impulse prominence and tone audibility at remote assessment locations

Abstract

This paper studies the prediction of impulse prominence and tone audibility at remote assessment locations, with a focus on industrial and commercial sound. The British Standard 4142 provides objective methods for determining graded corrections to the equivalent continuous sound pressure level for impulsivity and tonality, but these methods require specific sound sources to be installed and operating. In planning applications, where the sources are proposed or the propagation path is intended to change significantly, the professional judgement of the acoustics practitioner is relied upon to determine the likely prominence/audibility of these features at a remote assessment location. To address this issue, online listening tests utilising simplified auralisation ('auralisation-lite') were conducted among members of the Association of Noise Consultants in the UK. The initial results suggest that objective evaluation can indeed offer an improvement over existing subjective evaluations. The work provides a new method for practitioners to predict tonal and impulsivity corrections for non-existent sources. This study also provides a comprehensive review of relevant literature and standards, including ISO 9613-2:1996 and ISO/TR 17534-3:2015. The findings have practical implications for environmental agencies, industrial settings, and other fields where accurate prediction of sound level impacts are crucial.