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Effects of amplitude modulation on perception of wind turbine noise

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Abstract

Wind turbine noise is considered to be easily detectable and highly annoying at relatively lower sound levels than other noise sources. Many previous studies attributed this characteristic to amplitude modulation. However, it is unclear whether amplitude modulation is the main cause of these properties of wind turbine noise. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to identify the relationship between amplitude modulation and these two properties of wind turbine noise. For this investigation, two experiments were conducted. In the first experiment, 12 participants determined the detection thresholds of six target sounds in the presence of background noise. In the second experiment, 12 participants matched the loudness of modified sounds without amplitude modulation to that of target sounds with amplitude modulation. The results showed that the detection threshold was lowered as the modulation depth increased; additionally, sounds with amplitude modulation had higher subjective loudness than those without amplitude modulation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. AeroAcoustics and Noise Control Laboratory, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Korea

    Kiseop Yoon & Doo Young Gwak

  2. Ammunition Engineering Team, Defense Agency for Technology and Quality, Daejeon, 35409, Korea

    Yeolwan Seong

  3. Aerodynamics Research Team, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Daejeon, 305-806, Korea

    Seunghoon Lee

  4. Transportation Environmental Research Team, Green Transport & Logistics Institute, Korea Railroad Research Institute, Uiwang, 16105, Korea

    Jiyoung Hong

  5. Center for Environmental Noise and Vibration Research, Engineering Research Institute, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Seoul National University, Seoul, 151-744, Korea

    Soogab Lee

Authors
  1. Kiseop Yoon
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  2. Doo Young Gwak
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  3. Yeolwan Seong
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  4. Seunghoon Lee
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  5. Jiyoung Hong
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  6. Soogab Lee
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Soogab Lee.

Additional information

Recommended by Associate Editor Cheolung Cheong

Soogab Lee is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University. He received his Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University in 1992. He worked as a Research Scientist at NASA Ames Research Center from 1992 to 1995. His research interests are in the area of aerodynamics and acoustics of rotating machines including wind turbine systems.

Kiseop Yoon is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University. He received his B.S. degree from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in 2011. His research interests are in the area of active noise control system and the perception of environmental noise.

Doo Young Gwak is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University. He received his B.S. degree from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in 2010. His research interests are in the area of psychoacoustics and the prediction of ‘drone’ noise.

Yeolwan Seong is a Researcher in the Defense Agency for Technology and Quality at Daejeon. He received his M.S. degree from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in 2013. His research interests are in the area of psychoacoustics and railway noise.

Seunghoon Lee is a Researcher in the Korea Aerospace Research Institute at Daejeon. He received his Ph.D. degree from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in 2014. His research interests are in the area of helicopter aerodynamics and wind turbine noise.

Jiyoung Hong is a Researcher in the Korea Railroad Research Institute at Uiwang. She receive her Ph.D. degree from the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in 2011. Her research interests are in the area of human noise perception and environmental noise impact assessment.

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Yoon, K., Gwak, D.Y., Seong, Y. et al. Effects of amplitude modulation on perception of wind turbine noise. J Mech Sci Technol 30, 4503–4509 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-016-0918-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-016-0918-7

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