Short-term annoyance reduction evoked by active noise control method on turboprop regional aircraft cabin noise

Abstract

Since the 2000s, the advancing global economy has increased the demand for turboprop regional aircraft, and various studies have been conducted to resolve aircraft noise-related problems. Despite the progress made by previous studies, turboprop regional aircraft still have a poor noise environment compared to other vehicles. In addition, although an application of active noise control (ANC) method had improved the noise environment of the cabin, none of studies were conducted in consideration of a relationship between the application of ANC method and the resulting change of an (short-term) annoyance. Therefore, in the current study, an annoyance reduction evoked by active noise control (ANC) methodology on a turboprop regional aircraft cabin noise was investigated in three experiments. In the first experiment, 50 participants estimated the perception limit of psychoacoustic parameters on aircraft interior noise to identify the cognitive characteristic of the noise. Furthermore, the noise reduction achieved by applying ANC was identified based on the empirical results of the second experiment. Finally, the third experiment examined the relationship between psychoacoustic parameters (loudness and sharpness) and annoyance with the assistance of 50 participants. As a result, the difference between the noise reduction and the annoyance reduction was identified. Furthermore, the degree of annoyance reduction of implementing ANC in cabin noise was identified.