Acúfenos: Sección Ruido ambiental: Influence of noise sensitivity on annoyance of indoor and outdoor noises in residential buildings

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Jong Kwan Ryu^a and Jin Yong Jeon^{, a,}

^a Department of Architectural Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea

Received 23 July 2010; 

revised 17 December 2010; 

accepted 21 December 2010. 

Available online 21 January 2011.

Abstract

A survey and a laboratory experiment were conducted to investigate the influence of noise sensitivity on the annoyance caused by indoor residential noises and outdoor traffic noise.

Results showed that noise sensitivity significantly influenced the annoyance level caused by both indoor and outdoor noise, consistent with previous studies on transportation noise.

Annoyance level was significantly correlated with sensitivity in both the survey (r = 0.42–0.48 and 0.35 for indoor and outdoor noises, respectively) and the laboratory experiment (r = 0.25 and 0.14 for indoor and outdoor noises, respectively), in which noise exposure was controlled at 50 dBA.

The correlation coefficient for indoor noise was higher than that for outdoor noise and was also higher than the average values (r = 0.3 and 0.22 for uncontrolled and controlled noise exposures, respectively) calculated using the results of several previous studies on outdoor transportation noise.

Sensitivity was found to have a greater influence on the percentage of people who were highly annoyed by the indoor noise than it did on those affected by the outdoor noise.

Keywords: Noise sensitivity; Annoyance; Indoor noise; Outdoor noise

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Fig. 2. Average annoyances of the three sensitivity groups (low, mid, and high) for indoor and outdoor noises. Error bars indicate standard deviations. Asterisks indicate significant differences in sensitivity between groups (p < 0.01).

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Fig. 3. The percentages of highly annoyed persons as a function of sensitivity score for indoor and outdoor noises.

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Fig. 4. Average annoyances of the three sensitivity groups (low, mid, and high) for indoor and outdoor noises when sound levels were fixed. Error bars indicate standard deviations. Asterisks indicate significant differences in sensitivity between groups (p < 0.01).

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Fig. 5. Annoyances for fixed indoor and outdoor noise levels as a function of sensitivity score.

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Table 1. Questionnaire for sensitivity investigation.

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Table 2. Correlation coefficients between sensitivity and annoyance for the indoor and outdoor noises in the survey. All correlation coefficients are significant (p < 0.01).

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Table 3. Correlation coefficients between sensitivity and annoyance for indoor and outdoor sources at two sound levels in the laboratory experiment.
 p < 0.01.

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Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 2 2220 1795; fax: +82 2 2220 4794.

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Fuente: Applied Acoustics
Volume 72, Issue 6, May 2011, Pages 336-340