APPLICATION OF PSYCHOACOUSTIC METRICS FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF TONALITY OF INDUSTRIAL SOUNDS

According to BS 4142:20141 , assessments of impact of industrial sound sources on residential amenities must take into account the presence of the acoustic features in the specific sound source, including tonality, impulsivity, intermittency and other perceptible features. Presence of an acoustic feature can be identified using either subjective or objective methods, with preference given to the former. In the subjective method, a penalty is added to the specific sound based on the strength of the audibility of the feature, while a penalty based on the objective methods is calculated by applying a formula. With regard to the subjective method, the penalty applied strongly depends on the experience of the assessor and thus can be applied incorrectly. However, penalties given by the objective methods are based on sound pressure level calculations and do not include perceptual features of sound and the evoked auditory sensation, which are crucial for the assessment of annoyance and disturbance. This paper attempts to bridge the assessment of impact and audibility of industrial sounds from the human perspective with their physical attributes. This is realised by applying calculations of psychoacoustic metrics to binaural sound recordings made in the vicinity of industrial sound sources with prominent acoustic features. The research presented in this paper focuses on tonality; it compares the assessment of tonality using the Joint Nordic Method recommended by BS 4142 with alternative methods s