NASA Langley Research Center has conducted three groups of studies on human response to sonic booms: laboratory, "inhome," and field. The laboratory studies were designed to: (1) quantify loudness and annoyance response to a wide range of shaped sonic boom signatures and (2) assess several noise descriptors as estimators of sonic boom subjective effects. The studies were conducted using a sonic boom simulator capable of generating and playing, with high fidelity, both user-prescribed and recorded boom waveforms to test subjects. Results showed that sonic boom waveform shaping provided substantial reductions in loudness and annoyance and that perceived level was the best estimator of subjective effects. Booms having asymmetrical waveforms were found to be less loud than symmetrical waveforms of equivalent perceived level. Subjective responses to simulated ground-reflected waveforms were fully accounted for by perceived level. The inhome study presented participants with simulated sonic booms played within their normal home environment. The results showed that the equal energy theory of annoyance applied to a variety of multiple sonic boom exposures. The field studies concluded that sonic boom annoyance is greater than that in a conventional aircraft noise environment with the same continuous equivalent noise exposure.

A series of experimental studies utilizing approximately 2200 test subjects has led to the development of a general empirical model for the prediction of passenger ride discomfort in the presence of complex noise and vibration inputs. The ranges of vibration and noise stimuli used to derive the model included the amplitudes and frequencies that are known to most influence passenger comfort. The ride quality model accounts for the effects of combined axis vibrations (up to three axes simultaneously) and includes corrections for the effect of vibration duration and interior noise. Output of the model consists of an estimate of the passenger discomfort produced by a given noise and/or vibration environment. The discomfort estimate is measured along a continuous scale that spans the range from below discomfort threshold to values of discomfort that are far above discomfort threshold.

A laboratory investigation was directed at the development of criteria for the prediction of ride quality in a noise-vibration environment. The stimuli for the study consisted of octave bands of noise centered at 500 and 2000 Hz and vertical floor vibrations composed of either 5 Hz sinusoidal vibration, or random vibrations centered at 5 Hz and with a 5 Hz bandwidth. The noise stimuli were presented at A-weighted sound pressure levels ranging from ambient to 95 dB and the vibration and acceleration levels ranging from 0.02--0.13 grms. Results indicated that the total subjective discomfort response could be divided into two subjective components. One component consisted of subjective discomfort to vibration and was found to be a linear function of vibration acceleration level. The other component consisted of discomfort due to noise which varied logarithmically with noise level (power relationship). However, the magnitude of the noise discomfort component was dependent upon the level of vibration present in the combined environment. Based on the experimental results, a model of subjective discomfort that accounted for the interdependence of noise and vibration was developed. The model was then used to develop a set of criteria (constant discomfort) curves that illustrate the basic design tradeoffs available between noise and vibration.

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