An Evaluation Method of Combined Effects of Infrasound and Audible Noise

Abstract

A psychophysical experiment was conducted to investigate an evaluation method for the combined effects of infrasound and audible noise. In the experiment, subjective rating of 80 mixed noise stimuli were obtained from 15 subjects on 22 semantic-differential-type scales. The stimulus noise conditions were mixtures of one of eight pure tones at 5, 10, 20, and 40 Hz and one of eight 1/3 octave band noises with centre frequencies 63, 125, 250, and 500 Hz. The rating data were subjected to a principal component analysis and yielded two principal components, these were interpreted as the perceptual components of infrasound and audible noise respectively. On the basis of this result, a psychophysical model was proposed to make two-dimensional predictions of subjective ratings from the physical variables of the noise stimuli. Following this model, a best weighting curve, in combination with the A-weighting curve and their regression weights, were estimated. The results showed that the psychological model successfully described the rating data.

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