Abstract:

Noise generated by machines is one of the main factors affecting the quality of the working environment, the health and comfort of employees.

The current approach to assessing both noise and noise annoyance is based on the use of physical parameters of the acoustic signal describing changes in the sound pressure level over time (including the LAeq index, LCpeak index, LDWN index). The complexity of the nature of the impact of noise on humans and the process of sound perception indicate that subjective aspects of noise should be taken into account.

Known solutions in this area refer to the use of models of subjective sound features for the assessment of sound impressions in the urban environment [21,22,23,34]. The annoyance of various noise sources is usually associated with the assessment of loudness. It can be assumed that with the increase in the loudness of a given source, the impression of annoyance caused by this noise increases. This statement is true for sources of traffic noise, such as aircraft, cars or railways.

In the case of industrial noise sources, this relationship does not occur. At the same sound level values, the noise from industrial sources turns out to be differently annoying.

The emitted vibroacoustic signals of machines provide important information on, among others, frequency structure, amplitude modulation, masking and complex acoustic phenomena.