Subjective evaluation of wind turbine noise using 3-dimensional audio- visual reproduction system

Abstract

In recent years, the installation of new wind turbines has been promoted in Japan. Since wind turbines are often installed in quiet countryside, it is necessary to properly evaluate the noise impact of wind turbine installation. Since wind turbines are thought to have visual as well as auditory effects, we conducted a subjective evaluation experiment on the loudness and annoyance of wind turbine noise (WTN) and road traffic noise (RTN) by magnitude estimation method, using a three-dimensional audio-visual reproduction system consisting of 6 channels of loudspeakers installed around the sound receiving point and a dome screen. As a result, the loudness and annoyance of WTN tended to be evaluated higher than that of RTN. These results were considered to be influenced by the amplitude modulation called "swish sound" and the low-frequency dominant frequency characteristics, which are characteristics of WTN. In addition, when comparing the differences in loudness and annoyance with and without visual information, the two attributes tended to be lower when visual information was present.